Martin Brundle shares theory behind Leclerc’s ‘angsty’ Ferrari radio complaints

Fuming at Ferrari during the Hungarian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc may have backtracked to blame the chassis for his late-race issue, but Martin Brundle believes it was a ride-height problem.

Leclerc claimed a surprise pole position at the Hungaroring, as he beat Oscar Piastri to the coveted grid slot by 0.026s.

Charles Leclerc was fuming with Ferrari during the Hungarian GP

The Monegasque driver held his position off the line and led throughout the early laps before he and Piastri, going with two-stop strategies, opened the door for Lando Norris.

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.”

That miracle never came to pass and Leclerc was booted off the podium by George Russell, taking the chequered flag 15 seconds after the Mercedes driver with his deficit down to 20s due to a penalty for “erratic” driving as he defended against Russell.

Leclerc, despite his radio rant, toned down his tune as he spoke with the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race.

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Instead of claiming his issue was something Ferrari could have managed, he said it was an issue with the “chassis”.

“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.”

What he didn’t clear up, though, was whether that chassis is one that Ferrari has to run it as low as possible to the ground to find pace. And that, as George Russell pointed out, puts it “close to illegal” in terms of plank wear.

Brundle believes that is the case.

“Leclerc was also unhappy but for very different reasons,” Brundle wrote in his Sky F1 column.

“He led superbly from pole position and had great pace in the opening stint, even pulling away from Piastri.

“However, his pace increasingly dropped off as the race progressed, and his angsty radio calls were all about him wanting to have handled expected car issues differently.

“Here’s what I believe that could be about.

“This Ferrari works much better closer to the ground, especially at the rear, and we often see it heavily bottoming out. This can wear the plank underneath and render the car illegal, as happened in China earlier this year.

“We know they sometimes lift off the throttle in high-speed corners to protect that wear when the car is heavily aero loaded.

“In Budapest at his pit stops, they raised tyre pressures, which raises the car but gives away grip, and the team also reduced front-wing angle. This hurt his pace

“Leclerc eventually finished an angry 42 seconds behind the winner, which included a five-second penalty for unreasonably banging into the side of Russell into Turn One when he was being passed for the final step on the podium.

“Charles has only won once from his last 16 poles.”

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