Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc was at a loss to explain the Maranello team strategy call to use to the Hard tyres for the second stint of the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod.
Charles started the race from third place and reached second place after the first round of pit stops, with teammate Carlos Sainz losing out due to a slower pit. The Monegasque then overtook the Mercedes of George Russell for P1 and started to create an advantage in the lead of the race. A resurgent Max Verstappen pitted first during the second round of stops, which prompted a response from Scuderia Ferrari, that was far from ideal. The Italian side decided to call Charles Leclerc for Hard tyres but, due to difficulties in warming them up as a result of the cold conditions in Budapest, the Ferrari F1-75 car had to chance to defend against Max Verstappen and George Russell, who were running with Mediums.
Ferrari was later aware of their error and switched Charles Leclerc onto Soft tyres for the last laps, but there was nothing the Monegasque driver could do to at least recover to the top five. In his first interview after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc was asked if he was able to explain the Maranello team’s strategy decision.
“I don’t know yet. We need to speak with the team and understand the thoughts behind putting on the Hard tyres, because I felt very strong on the Mediums,” Charles Leclerc said for Sky Sports F1 – “Everything was under control, and I don’t know why we needed to go on the Hard tyres. I said on the radio that I was very comfortable with the Medium tyres and that I wanted to go as long as possible with those tyres, because the feeling was good, but I don’t know why we took a different decision.” – he added.
Ahead of the final round of pit-stops, Charles Leclerc had been gradually increasing his lead at the front of the field. Despite the fact that he had a gap of about five-seconds before his pit for hards, the Monegasque driver was already 20 seconds behind when Ferrari called him back to the pits for the soft tyres. Charles was of course very disappointed with the outcome of the Hungarian Grand Prix, pointing out that he had been happy with his car’s pace up to that point and felt their deficit all came from the switch to Hard tyres.
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“Honestly, I was pretty happy with the pace. The only thing is that obviously everybody will remember the last part of the race where it was a disaster for me, especially on the Hard tyre – that’s where I lost the race, basically. I lost 20 seconds with the pit-stop, maybe another six seconds in five laps on the Hard tyres, because I was just all over the place with this tyre. We’ll speak about this inside the team to get better.” – Charles Leclerc concluded.
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