Russell raises suspicions about Leclerc’s Ferrari after Hungarian GP battle

George Russell believes Ferrari were running Charles Leclerc too close to the ground in Hungary, leaving the team with no option but to increase his tyre pressure during his second pit stop.

That created an undriveable Ferrari, and Russell was able to pounce to take the final position on the podium.

George Russell: He’s not going to tell you that they’re close to being illegal

Leclerc lined up on pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a first for Ferrari for this season, and was in a race against Oscar Piastri for the victory with the Monegasque driver holding the advantage.

Lando Norris got involved in the fight for the victory as he opted to offset Leclerc and Piastri’s two-stop strategies with a one-stopper that put him in the lead.

Leclerc, though, was still in the hunt when he came into the pits on lap 41 for his second and final stop, where Ferrari bolted on a set of the hard Pirellis.

His pace plummeted by two seconds per lap.

“This is so incredibly frustrating,” Leclerc vented 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.”

The miracle Leclerc desperately wanted did not come to pass as Russell closed in on him and overtook him for third.

Adding to Leclerc’s misery, he was given a five-second penalty as his defending against the Mercedes driver was deemed to be “erratic” driving by the FIA stewards. Leclerc finished the grand prix in fourth place, having lost 15 seconds to Russell on the track.

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It has been suggested that Leclerc’s pace was hampered by Ferrari increasing the tyre pressure for his final stint.

And that, Russell reckons, is because the car was “close to being illegal” in terms of plank wear.

“I saw how slow he was, so I presumed something was not right,” he told Sky F1.

“He’s not going to tell you that they’re close to being illegal.

“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.”

Ferrari have already been disqualified once this season for excessive plank wear after Lewis Hamilton’s SF-25’s plank was found to be less than the mandated 9mm thickness during the post-race inspection after the Canadian Grand Prix.

Russell believes the Scuderia even turned down Leclerc’s engine to combat the problem.

“[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,” he said.

“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.”

Analysing Leclerc’s drop-off in pace, Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson said he noticed that even off the line, Leclerc’s Ferrari was throwing up sparks as he raced to Turn 1.

He too believes Ferrari upped the pressure in Leclerc’s tyres in the final stint to prevent more plank wear, but that cost him grip and speed.

“Straight away, off the line, I’m watching plank wear potential on the Ferrari,” said the former F1 driver.

“There is a lot of dust and sparks getting thrown up, even at moderate speed, before Turn 1. All the bumps going up towards Turn 4, and his car is sparking a lot. You can do a lot of damage at the end of the race.

“When they came into the final pit stop and Ferrari was worried about the car being too low and therefore the plank wear being too high, then when the next set of tyres go on, if they have boosted the pressure inside those, that plays havoc with your grip. It’s a good case study and analysis from Mercedes and George himself.

“It’s funny how the teams look at each other. I even mentioned it about how hard it was to overtake Leclerc because of how quick they were on the straight, and he was like a sitting duck.

“That was a real surprise to me and the other teams have seen the drop in speed throughout the race. So that set of tyres would’ve had a lot more unwanted pressure, which overheats the tyres more, and there goes your grip.”

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