Charles Leclerc was left disappointed after the Hungarian Grand Prix, where a promising front-row starting position ultimately produced only fourth place. The Ferrari driver slipped from second to fifth at the start and recovered one position in the final classification because of Lewis Hamilton’s five-second penalty.
Charles Leclerc had already appeared less than confident about his prospects before the race, despite lining up second on the grid. His caution followed a qualifying session in which the Monegasque had explained why pole position had seemed out of reach from Q1.
Starting on used Soft tyres from the dirty side of the circuit, Charles Leclerc struggled to find sufficient grip and had dropped to fifth by the end of the opening corner. From there, he endured a largely uneventful race before Lewis Hamilton’s penalty promoted him to fourth in the final Hungarian GP results.
Charles Leclerc explains his difficult Hungarian GP start
Speaking to Canal Plus after the race, Charles Leclerc explained that the lack of grip was already evident while completing Ferrari’s starting procedure.
“When I carried out the start procedure, the moment I released the throttle, there was much less grip than we had expected. I had quite a lot of wheelspin, then at Turn 1 I found myself a little squeezed between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. At that point I had to slow down again, and after that we were in fifth position. It was extremely difficult to recover.”
The Ferrari driver then described how the behaviour of the SF-26 changed considerably between tyre stints, making it difficult to understand the car’s true performance.
“What is difficult to understand is that it is not only down to us. There is a lot of information to analyse. The stint on the Softs was not bad and the first stint on the Hards was quite good, but on the second Hard stint I had no feeling with the car. It was extremely complicated to understand what was wrong with the tyres.”
“Then the Softs at the end were still quite good, but we were on an offset strategy compared with the others, so it is difficult to make a comparison. Still, the feeling was good.”
Ferrari inconsistency leaves Charles Leclerc searching for answers
Charles Leclerc’s greatest concern was Ferrari’s continuing inconsistency. The team’s performance across the previous three Grands Prix had developed in precisely the opposite way to its pre-race expectations, while different sets of the same tyre compound also appeared to deliver markedly different levels of performance.
“It is very difficult to find consistency with this car. The really strange thing is that, in the last three races, the exact opposite of what we expected has happened.”
“In the two races where we did not expect to do well, everything came together and we finished first and second. In the race where we still expected a good result, we finished fourth and fifth. But that sums up the general behaviour of these cars. I think it is difficult for everyone to understand, and we have to be better than the others.”
“For my part, I will keep working to try to understand what causes this inconsistency in this car, and why the same sets of tyres do not perform consistently. They seem very different. It is very strange.”
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