01/07/2025 16:20
Charles Leclerc has conceded Ferrari "paid the price" during the
Austrian Grand Prix as it was forced to manage its pace. Leclerc
secured his fourth podium of the season with a run to third around
the Red Bull Ring, following home the McLaren duo of Lando Norris
and Oscar Piastri. The Monegasque was almost 20 seconds behind the
race leader, while he was relatively unchallenged by the
competition behind. "There weren't very many key moments on my
side," Leclerc told media including RacingNews365 . " Obviously, at
the start, I wish I had done a bit of a better job to be completely
alongside Lando. Maybe that would have changed a little bit for
three or four laps. "I don't think we had the pace to stay there in
front. Basically, from Turn 1 to the end, it was a very boring
race." During the race, a team radio communication was broadcast
on the live feed in which Leclerc was instructed to lift and coast.
Leclerc stated it was a race-long element he had to consider, which
dramatically dented his pace during the grand prix. "I was on my
own, just trying to manage quite a few issues that we had on our
side," he said. "Let's not call them issues, but we've got to do
some management in the situation we're in at the moment. I won't go
into the detail, but the lift and coast was a little bit
frustrating. "We paid a bit of the price for it on the first stint,
but then the second and last stint were a bit more positive, which
was good. "But there weren't many key moments apart from the
start."
