Confusion at Ferrari: Leclerc contradicts Hamilton on tyre choice – Baku GP
Disappointment was the dominant feeling for both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton after a frustrating qualifying session in Baku. Ferrari had arrived at this circuit with high expectations, but the outcome of Saturday’s session was far from what the Scuderia had hoped for. Charles Leclerc will only start from tenth position on the grid, while his new teammate Lewis Hamilton lines up in twelfth. The SF-25 had shown promise at the beginning of the weekend, yet something shifted as qualifying unfolded.
The costly mistake made by Charles Leclerc in Q3 proved decisive. The Monegasque driver, running car number 16, effectively missed out on participating properly in the final qualifying shootout, where Ferrari had every reason to aim for top positions. Meanwhile, McLaren suffered a difficult day, presenting what could have been a golden opportunity for the Maranello team. Instead, Ferrari now finds itself forced into recovery mode for Sunday’s race.
Uncertainty over tyre compounds
During the post-qualifying interviews in Baku, with several media outlets including ScuderiaFans.com present, the contrast between the Ferrari drivers became clear. Lewis Hamilton explained that he would have preferred using the medium compound in order to avoid the risk of being eliminated in Q2. Charles Leclerc, however, stated he had struggled to find any real feeling with that particular tyre choice.
“It is frustrating, because this is normally a track where I feel comfortable,” admitted Charles Leclerc. “I made quite a few changes to the car for qualifying and overall, I felt good. Every lap with the soft tyres felt better. Then we switched to the mediums, which we thought would be the stronger compound. But today, with these temperatures, they were simply impossible to get into the right working window.”
According to Charles Leclerc, the difficult conditions in Baku were not the main issue. He was convinced that the problem lay specifically with the tyres themselves: “We were missing pace on the yellow-marked mediums. Before my mistake I was already seven or eight tenths behind, even while pushing flat out. We will need to analyse what happened, but it is not an easy situation.”
On the other side of the Ferrari garage, Lewis Hamilton expressed the opposite view. The seven-time world champion was not satisfied with the soft compound and suggested he would have preferred to rely on the mediums. Charles Leclerc, however, stood firm in his disagreement with his teammate’s assessment: “Initially, I shared Lewis’s view and I wanted to run the mediums in qualifying for a potential advantage. But once I tried them, I immediately regretted the decision.”
The diverging perspectives of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton highlight the uncertainty currently surrounding Ferrari’s tyre choices. With both drivers out of position on the starting grid, the Scuderia faces a challenging Grand Prix in Baku, where recovering ground will demand flawless strategy and execution.
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