It was a hellish Silverstone Grand Prix for Charles Leclerc, who at one point in the race was even 100 seconds slower than the others. Despite a great start, which allowed him to gain three positions from the initial P11, the Monegasque driver paid dearly for a risky strategy, from which he could not recover.
After the dream win at his home circuit in Monaco, Ferrari’s #16 driver has only scored 12 points so far. A disaster for Maranello, which became a nightmare at Silverstone.
Ferrari decided to pit Charles Leclerc early, opting for intermediate tires as early as lap 19, after seeing the huge gap with Carlos Sainz.
Radio communications with Charles Leclerc
On lap 16, his team informed him of heavy rain in two to three laps, which should then lessen. They also expected further rain later. On lap 17, Charles Leclerc was informed that turn 15 [Stowe] was wet and that “the race leader will stay out anyway.”
On lap 18, the Monegasque was informed that the rain should last “another three or four laps.” He was also told that slicks remained the fastest compound. Then, his team advised him of “heavy rain in the pit lane,” which would continue for another 10 minutes. Towards the end of the lap, Charles Leclerc informed his crew to get ready.
The Monegasque pitted on lap 19 to fit intermediates after noticing a substantial amount of rain in the Becketts turn. However, part of the track was completely dry.
Why was Charles Leclerc slow?
From lap 21 to lap 26, Charles Leclerc was lapping 13.797 seconds slower than Carlos Sainz (who was still on mediums). When the intermediates became the right tires to use, the Monegasque had overheated his in the previous laps, and any advantage was lost.
In fact, the Ferrari driver still had to make another pit stop to fit another set of intermediates. This stop happened on lap 27. Additionally, he lost more time while being lapped. At the end of his outlap, Charles Leclerc was 114.555 seconds behind Carlos Sainz. Before his initial pit stop, the Monegasque was 14.755 seconds behind his teammate. This means that in total, Charles Leclerc lost 100 seconds due to the risky pit stop.
From there on, the Monegasque lived a nightmare that relegated him out of the points. Like him, Ocon and Pérez also gambled on intermediates, pitting around the same lap as him.
Source: f1ingenerale
