Charles Leclerc has called on Ferrari to take a step forward with its strategic decisions after the team recovered from a costly early tyre gamble to finish third and fourth in the rain-hit Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton secured the final podium position, with Charles Leclerc immediately behind his team-mate after an incredible and chaotic race at Sepang.
Charles Leclerc was realistic about Ferrari’s result and did not complain about the final positions, but the Monegasque made it clear that he believes better strategic decisions are possible. Ferrari made a significant gamble by choosing to start both cars on soft slick tyres while the Sepang circuit was still very wet following the downpour that caused a lengthy delay to the start. After that decision went against the team, Lewis Hamilton’s podium and Charles Leclerc’s fourth place were effectively the maximum Ferrari could recover.
Ferrari remains second in the Constructors’ Championship, with its advantage over McLaren increasing to 89 points following a second consecutive disappointing Grand Prix for McLaren. Nevertheless, the Maranello team could potentially have achieved more had the opening phase of the race been managed differently from a strategic perspective, including the possibility of splitting the tyre choices between its two drivers.
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari strategy must improve
Charles Leclerc explained why making different choices for the two Ferrari cars would also have involved significant risk in such uncertain conditions.
“Well, because it’s true that in those conditions one of the two drivers is certainly destined to have a terrible race and the other benefits from a very good choice, because there is no middle ground in situations like that. I actually thought I had made the right choice, because most of the grid, I think 13 cars, were on slicks. I think we misjudged the conditions, but there are certainly teams that consistently make better choices in those conditions.”
The Ferrari driver specifically highlighted Red Bull as a team that has repeatedly made strong calls in difficult circumstances and believes this is an area where Ferrari still has room to improve.
“I’m thinking especially of Red Bull, and in that respect we need to take a step forward. After all that, I think everything that could go wrong in the first part of the race did go wrong, but everything that could go as well as possible in the second part went well. Having said all that, I don’t think more than third or fourth was possible today, and it wouldn’t have been possible even in a normal race.”
Ferrari returns to the podium after difficult start
Despite the problems during the opening part of the Grand Prix, Ferrari ultimately returned to the podium through Lewis Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc completed a strong recovery to fourth place.
“After the wet conditions, the race was a little harder-fought than I would have liked, but the final result is what we deserved.”
Charles Leclerc raises concern over wet-weather power delivery
Charles Leclerc was also asked about Formula 1’s first significant experience of wet conditions with the current cars. After the difficulties Ferrari and several other teams experienced during the formation lap, the question was whether these cars could genuinely be driven safely in the wet.
“There are certainly risks, but yes, these cars can be driven. What we don’t like, and I think this is a view shared by all the drivers, is that there are situations where we don’t have control of the car and the power we receive from the power unit…”
It is a delicate subject and one that deserves deeper analysis once there has been time to examine what happened in more detail.
