Russell suggests Ferrari slowed Leclerc to dodge technical breach

George Russell has stirred the pot following Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix by casting doubt on Ferrari’s explanation for Charles Leclerc’s dramatic fade in the final stint – hinting the Italian team may have deliberately compromised its car’s pace to avoid breaching Formula 1’s technical regulations.

Russell, who snatched third place in the closing stages of the race by overtaking a struggling Leclerc, suggested that Ferrari may have acted preemptively during the Monegasque’s final pit stop to prevent illegal plank wear.

Leclerc’s early dominance was undeniable. He led through his first and second stints, his Ferrari dancing on the edge of perfection. Yet, in the race’s final act, his pace crumbled.

By lap 41, when he made his final pit stop, the Ferrari’s once-commanding lead had evaporated. Russell capitalized on the opportunity, overtaking Leclerc to claim third place.

“I saw how slow he was, so I presumed something was not right,” Russell told Sky F1, his voice carrying a note of curiosity tinged with suspicion.

A Game of Planks and Pressures

While Leclerc later revealed that a chassis issue had hampered his pace from around lap 40, Russell floated a different theory – one rooted in Ferrari’s potential fear of breaching F1’s strict plank wear regulations.

“He’s not going to tell you that they’re close to being illegal,” Russell said with a sly grin.

“The only thing we can think of is they were running the car too low to the ground and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint.”

Higher tyre pressures would increase the ride height and reduce wear on the skid block – a titanium plank fitted to the car’s floor to monitor minimum ground clearance – but they also come at the cost of grip and overall performance.

That might explain why Leclerc’s Ferrari suddenly became a shadow of its earlier self.

An engine mystery, too?

Russell didn’t stop there. He also hinted that Ferrari may have altered Leclerc’s power unit settings during the final stint, again possibly to reduce the forces acting on the underside of the car and avoid excessive plank degradation.

“They were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank wear,” Russell noted.

“That’s the only thing we can think of based upon the lap times and the engine mode they were running and stuff like that.”

Whether Russell's claims are rooted in competitive mischief or accurate analysis, they’ve added a layer of intrigue to Ferrari’s latest strategic disappointment.

Leclerc, who earlier lashed out at his team during the race over what he thought was poor decision-making, was later told about the chassis issue – admitting he’d been wrong to blame the pit wall.

A Curious Field, a Welcome Podium

Russell was delighted to return to the podium for the first time since his victory in Canada, but he admitted that the shape of the final classification raised questions about how unpredictable the current performance pecking order really is.

“If you exclude McLaren and you look at the order of P3 to P13, it’s quite odd,” he said.

“You wouldn’t expect Max [Verstappen] to be so far down. Aston had an amazing weekend. So we’ll take the positives and we won’t get carried away with it.”

Still, it’s clear that Russell left Budapest not only with a trophy, but with his sights firmly set on keeping his rivals honest, both on and off the track.

Read also: Leclerc admits anger misplaced as chassis issue unveiled post-race

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