Johnny Herbert analyses Charles Leclerc’s sudden drop in pace at the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix. Johnny Herbert analysed Charles Leclerc’s sudden pace drop at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The incident involving Charles Leclerc at last week’s Hungarian Grand Prix continues to generate discussion and speculation.

Former Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert has weighed in on the matter, offering his perspective on the sudden and dramatic drop in performance experienced by the Ferrari driver in the final stint of the race.

The explanation from Ferrari’s team principal Frederic Vasseur
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur had explained after the race that the radio exchanges between Charles Leclerc and the Scuderia Ferrari pit wall — where the Monegasque driver had suggested managing a certain factor differently — were not related to, nor a precursor of, his remarkably uncompetitive final stint. Up until that point, Charles Leclerc had been defending his race lead with authority, but he ultimately slipped to a disappointing fourth place, off the podium and powerless to resist the overtaking moves from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Mercedes driver George Russell.

Vasseur noted that the issue they had discussed could have, at most, influenced lap times by a tenth of a second. However, during the last stint, Charles Leclerc’s pace dropped by as much as two seconds per lap. This unexpected collapse in competitiveness shocked both the team and the driver.

Mercedes driver George Russell added further intrigue to the story after the race, suggesting that Ferrari may have been operating close to the limits of the regulations and might have needed to raise the car’s ride height during the final stint to prevent excessive wear on the flat floor.

Initial inspections carried out back at Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello ruled out any problems with the chassis — a theory Leclerc himself had raised during early debriefs with Ferrari engineers after the chequered flag.

Johnny Herbert’s technical view on the problem
Speaking to Grosvenor Casino, Johnny Herbert offered his analysis of Charles Leclerc’s struggles in the final part of the Hungarian Grand Prix. According to the former Grand Prix winner, the issue was unlikely to be related to the overall quality of the tyre sets. While it is true that sometimes one set can feel marginally better than another, Herbert pointed out that such differences are generally minimal and almost imperceptible.

For Johnny Herbert, the only tyre-related factor capable of significantly affecting performance on a modern ground-effect Formula 1 car is tyre pressure. He explained that by altering tyre pressures, the ride height of the car changes, which in turn directly impacts the efficiency and behaviour of the car’s underfloor aerodynamics. Since the floor generates a substantial portion of downforce in current F1 regulations, any change in its operating height can drastically influence performance.

Johnny Herbert described Charles Leclerc’s pace drop as “quite frightening,” noting that the Ferrari driver had gone from being one of the fastest on track to one of the slowest. He stressed that the Ferrari engineers appeared to know in advance that something was about to happen, given their radio exchanges, yet the exact cause remains unclear.

He concluded by saying that race performance is usually dictated by how well the car’s floor is working. Therefore, one possible explanation for the sudden loss of speed could be that Charles Leclerc struck a kerb too hard, potentially damaging or upsetting the car’s aerodynamics, though he admitted this remained speculative without further technical data.