03/08/2025 17:55
Charles Leclerc has taken back the anger he aimed towards his
Ferrari team during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver
admitted, "I was wrong" to ViaPlay following the chequered flag at
the Hungaroring, after it came to light that it was damage to his
SF-25 that ruined his race. Having started from pole, the
eight-time grand prix winner had a strong start and was controlling
the race through the first pit stop phase. It went downhill from
there, and he has now converted only one of his last 16 poles into
victory. The 27-year-old explained it was an issue with his
chassis, and not a problem related to his Ferrari power unit, as he
suspected through the 70-lap race. He appeared unhappy with the
management plan the Maranello squad's pit wall put together, as he
slide further down the order. "First of all, I need to take back
the words I've said on the radio, because I thought that it was
coming from one thing," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365
. "But then I got a lot more detail since I got out of 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 on lap
40, or something like that, and then it got worse lap after lap
after lap. And towards the end, we were two seconds off the pace,
and the car was just undrivable." 'The last stint was a disaster'
As a result of his frustration, Leclerc saw red. Having slipped
behind the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, he earned
himself a five-second time penalty through driving erratically
whilst defending third place from George Russell. Martin Brundle
labelled his ill-fated approach "bordering on wholly unreasonable",
something the stewards evidently agreed with. Despite the
punishment, the Ferrari driver held onto fourth place, but that is
little consolation for him, having started from pole. Leclerc went
as far as to suggest the problem had stolen his one chance to take
victory this season. "This was an issue, and it's an outlier. It
shouldn't ever happen again, but I'm still very disappointed," he
said. "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 on pace to try and win that race. The last stint was a
disaster when I started to have that issue with the chassis."
