Questions about Ferrari strategy, Max Verstappen jokes with Charles Leclerc: “Just tell them yes”. Max Verstappen jokes with Charles Leclerc in USA GP press conference.

One race, many ‘Plans’
During the United States Grand Prix, which he went on to win in dominant fashion, Charles Leclerc found himself discussing strategy management with his pit wall. The Monegasque driver was presented with several options during the Austin race, with the now ‘famous’ Plan A, B, and C.

Understandably, in the post-race press conference, there were questions directed at the Monegasque asking for a detailed explanation of these various race plans and whether they included some sort of ‘coverage’ for Max Verstappen’s position, as he was Charles Leclerc’s main pursuer during the first stint.

“You just tell them yes”
The Dutchman, seeing that Charles Leclerc was hesitating before answering, had fun suggesting the Ferrari driver quickly settle the matter, as he himself did recently with the now famous ‘boycott’ of press conferences. “Just tell them yes,” the Red Bull #1 indicated to his colleague, who couldn’t hold back a laugh. In the end, however, Charles Leclerc agreed to provide a more ‘elaborate’ response, explaining how the Maranello team managed the pit stops.

max telling charles just to say yes OSJKSKS pic.twitter.com/ru1TgSLlBA

— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) October 21, 2024

“Yes, we adapted it – Charles Leclerc commented at the end of the United States Grand Prix in Austin — but at a certain point, around the 15th or 16th lap, we had a good margin. So we had the freedom to copy whatever Max did a lap later because there was no way he could undercut us. So, when you’re in this situation, it’s much less stressful because you just have to copy what the driver behind you does, and we had the space to do that. So it was more about imitating what the others behind us were doing rather than developing a different strategy.” – the Monegasque driver concluded.