Leclerc admits anger misplaced as chassis issue unveiled post-race

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Charles Leclerc has admitted that his angry mid-race radio outbursts at Ferrari during the Hungarian Grand Prix were based on a misunderstanding, after discovering post-race that a hidden chassis problem was in fact to blame for his dramatic loss of pace.

The Ferrari driver, who started from pole and led the opening 20 laps of the race, gradually faded from contention during the final stint, slipping behind eventual race winner Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and George Russell.

What appeared to be a strategy or setup collapse turned out to be something more technical – but Leclerc, unaware of the issue at the time, let his frustration boil over on team radio.

“This is so incredibly frustrating”

After falling off the pace late in the second half of the race, Leclerc launched a scathing critique of his team during a series of increasingly agitated radio messages to race engineer Bryan Bozzi.

“This is so incredibly frustrating,” Leclerc exclaimed. “We’ve lost all competitiveness. You just have to listen to me, I would have found a different way of managing those issues. Now it’s just undriveable. It [will be] a miracle if we finish on the podium.”

That miracle never came as Leclerc crossed the line outside the top three, deeply disappointed after scoring Ferrari’s first pole position of the season.

Post-Race Realization

However, Leclerc’s tone shifted after the race, once the team informed him of a chassis fault that developed during the second half of the Grand Prix – a detail he hadn’t known while driving.

“From around lap 40 we had a problem with the chassis,” Leclerc explained to the official Formula 1 channel. “So now I’ve [been given] more details about it, in the car obviously I had no idea what was going on.

“I had an idea, but it was a wrong idea, because I thought it was something that was in our control. Unfortunately we had an issue on the chassis so I don’t have much to add on that. The car was just undriveable."

The revelation left the Monegasque understandably deflated, having seen a strong early performance unravel with little warning or apparent reason.

“It's an outlier. It shouldn't ever happen again, but I'm still very disappointed. We had one opportunity this year to win a race, which I think was this weekend.

“The first stint was perfect, the first laps of the second stint were really good as well, and I think we were on pace to try and win that race. The last stint was a disaster when I started to have that issue on the chassis.”

Vasseur: Fault Real, But Not the Full Picture

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur confirmed Leclerc’s car did suffer an issue, though he downplayed its overall impact on the team's sudden drop in form during the final stint.

“We were in full control the first stint,” Vasseur said. “A bit more under pressure with the McLaren on the second one but we were extending [our lead over] Russell.

“Then in the last part of the race, the last stint, we lost completely the pace of the weekend and finished the race two seconds slower. The car was very difficult to drive for Charles and we need to understand what’s happened.”

Still, Vasseur suggested Leclerc’s radio complaints overstated the significance of the issue.

“But when Charles was speaking about this, it was about tenths of a second and it’s details, but it’s not what’s happened at the end.”

With the summer break now underway, Ferrari will have time to investigate the root of the performance collapse – and Leclerc, time to cool off after what might have been a race-winning opportunity turned sour.

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Michael Delaney