Charles Leclerc backtracks on Ferrari radio rant as true cause of problems revealed

Charles Leclerc took back what he said on the team radio after discovering that the issue slowing him down in Hungary was the chassis and not something else.

The pole sitter was furious over the radio, blaming the team for not following his advice over an unmentioned issue, but has since backtracked on those comments.

Charles Leclerc takes back angry radio rant

Leclerc started on pole for the 27th time of his career but, like 21 of the previous occasions, he failed to turn that into a race win, intially blaming what he suggested was a known issue.

The Ferrari driver led the race through its earlier stages and looked a strong contender for victory, before falling sharply off the pace during his second stint.

“This is so incredibly frustrating,” Leclerc said over the radio during the race. “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 undrivable. Undrivable. It’s a miracle if we finish on the podium.”

Leclerc’s prediction proved to be an accurate one with George Russell passing while the Ferrari driver was also given a five-second penalty for erratic driving.

However, once he was out of the car, Leclerc took back what he said, revealing that he had been informed it was a chassis issue.

“First of all, I need to take back the words I’ve said on the radio,” he said. “Because I thought that it was coming from one thing but then I got a lot more details since I got out the car, and it was actually an issue coming from the chassis, and nothing that we could have done differently.

“I started to feel the issue in Lap 40, or something like that, and it got worse lap after lap after lap. Towards the end, we were two seconds off the pace and the car was just undrivable.

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“I repeat myself, but this was an issue, and it’s an outlier. It shouldn’t ever happen again. 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 in pace to try and win that race.

“The last stint was a disaster when I started to have that issue.”

Asked whether the team could have told him during the race, Leclerc said the cause of the problem was not immediately apparent in the data.

“I think it was quite tricky. Otherwise, I probably would have known and they would have told me, but apparently it wasn’t as obvious from the data.”

After leading the opening laps, Leclerc was classified fourth, 42 seconds down on eventual winner Lando Norris.

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