A tire blanket problem triggered a cascading effect, resulting in one of the most challenging qualifying laps of Charles Leclerc’s career. After videos, snapshots, and Charles Leclerc’s immediate post-qualifying statements, the cause seemed clear, only to be retracted after the race. A series of events that is explained by Charles Leclerc’s team radio, confirming a tire blanket issue in Singapore.
The warm-up lap issue is nothing new for the Ferrari SF-24, which has struggled all season to perform right away with new soft tires. However, the arrival of new updates, from the floor to the new front wing, has mitigated this problem. The warm-up lap proved crucial in last weekend’s qualifying.
A detailed reconstruction of the events shows how the mechanics tried to address the problem. The onboard camera footage shows a lot of activity around the front-left corner. Three minutes, or 180 seconds, led Charles Leclerc to start his lap at Marina Bay with tires that were nowhere near ready. During that time, the mechanics tried to manage the issue by taking a cable from Carlos Sainz’s garage, highlighting that something unusual was happening.
A 10-degree difference triggered a serious balance issue with car #16. This temperature delta also caused a significant pressure difference. The situation was worsened by the track’s configuration, which being counterclockwise, didn’t allow Charles Leclerc to overcome the issue. In fact, with many left-hand corners, the most stressed tires were those on the right side, which were frequently under load.
All these factors are confirmed by Charles Leclerc’s team radio at the end of his fastest lap, later deleted due to track limits in Turn 2. Charles Leclerc went out with three out of four tires at 70°C, the maximum limit allowed for tire blankets.
Click here to listen to the team radio.
After the beep of frustration over the deleted lap, Charles Leclerc’s message is clear as he comments on the anomaly on his dashboard: “Why were the temperatures -10 when I left the pits? We weren’t ready at all to go back on track.” He then asks Bryan Bozzi what happened, with his race engineer responding, “We still don’t have answers for that.”
Therefore, it is pointless to hide the evidence behind images, audio recordings, and retracted statements to avoid admitting mistakes. This approach doesn’t respect the passion of the fans for the team, but above all for a driver who, in this case, is not to blame.
Source: f1ingenerale
