The race held last Saturday at the 5.412 km Bahrain International Circuit located in Sakhir, Bahrain was a real ordeal for Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. From the beginning of the Grand Prix, he experienced brake problems that compromised his race. After the race, Ivan Capelli, Marc Gené, Carlo Vanzini, Vicky Piria, and Matteo Bobbi expressed their opinions during the Paddock Live program. Here are some of their most important statements.
Comments from the Sky Italia motorsport team:
The first to speak about the issue faced by Charles Leclerc was Marc Gené, who stated: “With such a problem, normally you either panic a bit or get angry. For this reason, I really liked Charles’s attitude because, yes, he reported the problem, but he did his best with what he had, and the Charles Leclerc of a few years ago wouldn’t have done that. He adapted a bit to the situation and hoped that the problem would decrease as the laps went by, so good for the way he reacted. He couldn’t do anything else.” – the Ferrari brand ambassador pointed out.
Continuing the round of opinions, Ivan Capelli then shared his thoughts. The Italian said: “Regarding the driving, he surely tried to adjust the brake balance, to help himself with positive torque, i.e., engine braking. The mistake we saw happened just after leaving the pits with the white tires, and that was another blow because even changing the tires didn’t improve the situation, and he had a really tough race, but sometimes drivers also have to adapt to problems.” – Ivan Capelli explained.
Aligning with Ivan Capelli’s thoughts, the new female voice of the Sky Formula 1 team, Vicky Piria, stated: “We know that Charles is a master at this. He has the ability to adapt immediately. Locking up immediately after the pit stop destabilizes a driver because you know it creates flat spots, and you tend to lock the wheels always in the same spot, so you brake less, and consequently, the car works less well. You start to have understeer, don’t load the front well, and then the braking conditions the entire turn and all the turns. Moreover, we’ve seen in these days how challenging this track is during braking.”
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The Formula 1 voice, Carlo Vanzini, added a brief comment: “I just want to add that, as we said before in the commentary, if you take away the braking from Charles, you take away his soul.”
Finally, concluding the round of opinions, Matteo Bobbi said: “Marc and Ivan said it perfectly. It was a sign of great maturity that Charles showed in managing the problem, even with the tools he had available, such as brake distribution and engine braking. But he wanted to stay afloat and continued despite a problem that, from what I saw, did not decrease. There were many micro-lockups, and on this track, in turn nine where you brake with a lot of steering angle, if you have brake problems, you can’t make it.” – Matteo Bobbi concluded at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
