Charles Leclerc’s efforts in Sunday’s US Grand Prix were thwarted by a post-race exclusion, but the Monegasque reckoned that Ferrari had in any case got its numbers wrong regarding his race strategy.
After starting from pole in Austin, Leclerc finished a disappointing sixth, having fallen outside of the top-three in the second part of the 56-lap race.
Early on, all signs pointed to a one-stop race as the fastest path to the checkered flag.
But as the race progressed, Leclerc realized that something was off with the numbers whipped up by Ferrari’s strategists.
“Straight away from the beginning of the race we thought the one-stop and the two-stops were extremely close together,” he explained immediately after the race, before the post-race scrutineering drama that would ensue later in the afternoon.
“After 12, 13 laps, I saw the numbers on the dash. They were pretty good for the one-stop, at least in terms of degradation.
"I wasn't losing that much time laps after laps. And considering our numbers, this was the right thing to do.
“So, I went for the one stop and unfortunately this was definitely the wrong thing to do. And for some reason, there was something wrong in our numbers today, because we were far off the ideal race strategy.”
On the other side of the Scuderia garage, Carlos Sainz followed a more basic two-stop strategy, which carried the Spaniard up to fourth, or two spots higher than his teammate.
Asked what had happened, a puzzled Leclerc was unable to provide a clear answer but admitted that “something was off”.
“To be honest, I don't have the answer yet because it was quite far off the two-stops.
“We finished behind Carlos by 10 seconds, which is a good comparison, because we've got both the same car. There was something off.”
Vasseur also admitted that the team had fumbled Leclerc’s strategy.
"Clearly we have mixed feelings," said the Scuderia boss. “Because on one side of the garage with Carlos, we did pretty well. Starting P4, finishing P4, we finished two or three seconds behind Norris, and I think everything went well.
"With Charles, who was 10 seconds in front of Carlos after 12 laps, we committed for one stop, and it was not the good choice, it's obvious.
"Probably the issue is that we didn't have a clear picture about this before the race, we were a bit hesitating, and he was a bit hesitating into the first stint, pushing or not pushing. And we made a mistake.
"It was not very clear before the race, as you can imagine. We had the two options. In terms of numbers, it was very, very close.
"I think where we made the mistake is that we anticipated that the field will be 50-50. And it was not at all."
Regardless of the reasons for Ferrari’s strategy error, Leclerc was ultimately excluded from the race’s results when the floor plank on the Monegasque’s SF-23 was deemed as non-compliant.
Following a post-race investigation by the US Grand Prix stewards, the Ferrari plank’s wear exceeded the authorized margin of 1 mm as measured from the assembly’s designated holes.
The fault left the stewards with no other option but to disqualify Leclerc from the event’s results, a fate also suffered by runner-up Lewis Hamilton for the same reasons.
It is believed that imperfect set-ups caused by the sprint weekend’s compressed schedule – with teams only awarded a single practice session before their cars entered parc fermé – and COTA’s many bumps led to plank wear exceeding the regulation’s limit.
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