Charles Leclerc admits ‘not acceptable’ mistake cost Miami podium chance

Charles Leclerc admitted a costly last-lap error — not Ferrari’s strategy — denied him a Miami Grand Prix podium, branding his mistake “not acceptable”.

Lining up third on the grid at the Miami International Autodrome, one of the questions that needed answering was whether the FIA’s tweaks to energy management would negate Ferrari’s flying starts.

Charles Leclerc says last-lap mistake cost Miami podium

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Based on safety grounds, the FIA altered the regulations to allow an automatic MGU-K deployment to be triggered to assist any driver suffering abnormally low acceleration shortly after the clutch release in the launch process.

But as has been seen often this season, Leclerc launched from third to first to lead the early running ahead of Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli. The duo chased down Leclerc, who then found himself in a battle with Oscar Piastri for the final podium position.

Leclerc was the first of the four to pit, and he wasn’t happy with the call as the forecast was for rain in the coming laps.

“Why did we stop? When is the rain?” Leclerc said. “Next time you make a decision please speak with me. I am here as well.”

As the pit stops played out and the rain stayed away, Leclerc was back up into third as he overtook the early-stopping Max Verstappen, with Piastri also through on the Red Bull driver.

Running third and fourth, Piastri closed the 2.5s deficit to Leclerc and overtook the Ferrari driver at Turn 17 on the penultimate lap.

Any chance of Leclerc fighting back was undone when the eight-time grand prix winner went spinning at Turn 3 on the final lap, and clipped the barrier with the front left of his SF-26.

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He spent the rest of the lap fighting to keep his Ferrari on the track and lost positions to George Russell and Verstappen, before being penalised 20 seconds after the race for repeatedly going off the track and gaining an advantage. He dropped from sixth to eighth in the classification.

The Monégasque driver accepts it was his mistake, not Ferrari’s strategy, that cost him a top three result.

“I think that without the mistake, I could have done a podium – more than the strategy,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media.

“It’s easy to blame it on the strategy after a while, even with the best strategy, with that mistake in the last lap, I probably wouldn’t have been on the podium.

“So first I’ll look at myself, and then shortly I’ll talk with the team to try and improve whatever we have to optimise.”

Quizzed on why he went spinning into the barrier at Turn 3 in his battle with Piastri, and whether frustration had played a role, Leclerc denied that.

“No, I was calm,” he said. “Actually, I was very calm.

“I wanted Oscar to get the overtake or I wanted to get the overtake from Oscar on that last lap, that’s why I didn’t make his life too difficult before the last one for him to overtake me.

“So I was relatively calm in the car. Then, of course, I pushed like an animal in Turn 3. And most of the time this year it went through. I’ve had quite a few battles this year, but this time, we didn’t, and I’m disappointed with myself.”

Nursing a car that didn’t want to turn to the right after his crash, Leclerc struggled to stay on the track and recorded several off-track moments.

That caught the attention of the stewards, who “determined that the fact that he had to cut the chicanes (i.e. to leave the track) meant that he gained a lasting advantage by leaving the track in that manner.”

They ruled that the “fact that he had a mechanical issue of some sort did not amount to a justifiable reason” and slapped him with a drive-through penalty that translated to 20 seconds post-race.

Speaking of the damage to his car, Leclerc said: “The damage was significant. To tell you exactly what was the damage, I’m not so sure.

“I’m pretty sure there was a puncture, there was probably some suspension damage as well, as I couldn’t really turn to the right anymore.

“So yeah, I’m very disappointed with myself. It’s all on me and it’s a mistake.

“I obviously need to look because with these cars, you always have the question mark of how much it deploys and considering it was the last lap, maybe there was a bit more out of that corner as you just need to finish the lap with that amount of energy.

“But that’s not an excuse in any way. It’s all on me and it’s not acceptable. So I need to look at that.”

Leclerc remains third in the Drivers’ standings, but he now trails Kimi Antonelli by 41 points, while Lando Norris, who was runner-up in the grand prix, is just eight points behind the Ferrari driver.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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