Ferrari lost the crucial chance to secure a race victory with Charles Leclerc. The Hungarian Grand Prix proved to be a Formula 1 race that left a distinctly bitter taste for the talented Monegasque driver, who had started the race from the highly coveted pole position. The number 16 Ferrari SF-25 car suffered various technical and performance problems that ultimately slowed down its pace significantly throughout the entirety of the race. Lewis Hamilton finished the race exactly as he had started it, in twelfth place, putting together a rather unremarkable and subdued race performance where the only moments of genuine excitement and interest came from his on-track battle with Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc know how to manage their tires very well
The leading group of drivers all started the race on the yellow-banded soft tire compound. The main idea behind this particular tactical choice was to follow a one-stop pit strategy, even though it was never entirely clear which strategic theory or approach could potentially be faster and more effective over the race distance. Considering that the Hungaroring is a tight and twisty circuit where completing an overtaking maneuver is notoriously quite difficult and challenging, the sensible approach was to carefully manage the race pace and tire degradation over the full race distance.
Lewis Hamilton was the only driver in the entire field to start the race on the white-banded hard tire compound, aiming to extend his first stint as long as possible and thereby perform an overcut maneuver on the midfield pack of drivers.
In the initial laps, the race strategists increasingly believed that executing a single tire change stop was achievable, especially within the McLaren team. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc succeeded in building a 3-second gap over McLaren’s Oscar Piastri driving the MCL39 car.
According to the pit wall of the reigning world champions, the point where Charles Leclerc was most vulnerable was at turn 1 of the circuit. Their assessment was that the Monegasque driver carried more speed through the corner but sacrificed some exit speed. Charles Leclerc performed a very good job managing the tire compounds, placing special emphasis on more careful “management” in the middle sector and at turn 11. Unexpectedly, the McLaren cars suffered more tire degradation.
Lando Norris openly communicated on the radio that he was struggling heavily with the medium tires. The McLaren team proposed that he should pit five laps earlier than the originally planned strategy discussed during the pre-race briefing. Oscar Piastri was more specific, complaining about graining on the front axle tires. This meant the team was dealing with a general problem related to tire graining, one of the few vulnerabilities of the otherwise outstanding MCL39.
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton also managed the hard tires very well, successfully keeping them in good condition for many laps. The harder degradation of the yellow-banded soft tires influenced Ferrari’s strategic approach in response to the strong performance of the British driver. However, Lewis Hamilton was repeatedly told over the radio to perform lift and coast maneuvers in order to cool his brakes and internal car components.
Did Charles Leclerc not want to pit? What really happened with Ferrari’s race strategy
On lap 19, McLaren called Oscar Piastri into the pits to switch to the hard tire compound, adhering to the one-stop strategy. Ferrari reacted promptly and decided to cover Piastri’s tactical move. On the following lap, the Prancing Horse team called Charles Leclerc to the pits to neutralize Piastri’s undercut attempt, fitting the harder tire compound as well. To keep his position on track, Charles pushed very hard on his in-lap, meaning he could not ease into the new tires gradually.
McLaren correctly split their race strategies. With Lando Norris, they decided to extend the stint on the medium tires, even though initially Lando Norris had complained about excessive tire degradation. Could McLaren’s radio communication have been misleading to Ferrari? The McLaren drivers were clearly in difficulty. But why did car number 4 manage to extend the stint so much? Andrea Stella, Ferrari’s sporting director, hinted at this during the post-race interview.
The issue was thermal in nature: when tire wear and consumption increase, the deformable portion of the tire decreases. This results in less tire deformation and consequently lower heat generation, allowing drivers to better control tire temperatures. By extending the stint so much, Lando Norris would have gained a compound advantage for the next stint anyway.
Additionally, in the event of a Safety Car deployment, Norris would have gained a significant amount of race time over Charles Leclerc. On the radio, Charles Leclerc was very clear and outspoken. First, he stated, “these things should be discussed before the race,” and on the following lap, he threatened, “this way we will lose the race.” Ferrari chose to keep a low profile without making public statements, leaving Charles to read information from his steering wheel display.
What exactly was the Ferrari driver referring to? There are several possible explanations. The first is that Charles Leclerc could have extended the stint on the medium tires even further to protect himself from the tire compound advantage that was developing for Lando Norris. The second concern was the fear of being trapped in a McLaren sandwich on track. At that moment, the two Woking-based drivers could have cooperated as a team.
Lando Norris was effectively trying to slow down Charles Leclerc on track, continuing to circulate on heavily worn tires, which would create an advantage for both McLaren drivers: Oscar Piastri would close the gap, while Lando Norris would reduce the deficit once he made his own pit stop. However, this scenario never materialized, as McLaren played a clean and fair race. Car number 4 pitted on lap 32 while still holding a good gap over the Ferrari driver.
McLaren waited for the optimal pit window around Fernando Alonso, avoiding on-track overtaking of the Spanish driver. Lando Norris rejoined the track behind George Russell but with a significant tire advantage of 12 laps, a very strong delta that could have given him considerable pace advantage towards the end of the race. With this clever move, Lando Norris secured the one-stop strategy, while Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri had to make a second pit stop.
What happened to Charles Leclerc? This time, the lift and coast strategy was not the issue
At this stage of the race, Charles Leclerc’s and Oscar Piastri’s race strategies were clearly oriented toward a two-stop approach. Piastri was asked whether he wanted to prioritize attacking the Ferrari driver or focus on marking Lando Norris, who had the larger tire delta. The Australian chose to simply follow his teammate, fully aware that he was not fighting for the championship against the Ferrari driver.
Lando Norris chose the best possible strategy. As revealed after the race, they had not anticipated the single-stop strategy that was later overtaken. On lap 41, Charles Leclerc changed his strategy while he was still leading the race. Ferrari’s team made a courageous call, but on this type of tight and technical circuit, it is crucial to think very carefully before giving up track positions. The Monegasque complained about losing time behind Pierre Gasly.
Shortly after, Charles Leclerc pitted again to switch to a second set of hard tires. Would it have been better for him not to stop? No, because if he had stayed out with Lando Norris’s pace, he would have been overtaken around lap 50, especially considering the performance problems he was facing, which we will discuss shortly. Oscar Piastri pitted on lap 46 to also switch to new hard tires. After leaving the pits, the number 16 Ferrari had roughly the same race pace as Lando Norris, at times even slightly worse.
With just over 20 laps remaining until the finish, Charles Leclerc lost the race lead that he was supposed to regain on track, hoping for a significant tire performance drop-off from Lando Norris that never came. Furthermore, the Italian car gradually lost pace, eventually having to concede position even to Oscar Piastri. The radio communications recorded on the onboard cameras are very clear and show Charles Leclerc’s frustration toward his own team.
“This is very frustrating. We have lost all competitiveness. You should have just listened to me. I would have found a different way to manage these problems. Now the car is undrivable. It’s a miracle if we finish the race on the podium.” From these last words, we can infer that Charles Leclerc was referring to a fuel issue, probably running low on fuel at this stage of the race, forcing him to perform extensive fuel management. A few laps earlier, he had already complained about unexpected fuel saving requirements.
However, other factors must be taken into consideration, such as the team radio messages about power drops that should be contextualized alongside another important element: the fuel-saving engine configuration. This mapping was by then “discarded,” meaning Charles was performing lift and coast without the software assistance that normally suggests the exact moment to lift off the throttle. Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur mentioned incorrect tire pressures on the final set, which may actually have been deliberately chosen to raise the car’s ride height and avoid excessive contact with the floor.
Beyond this, there are other theories that, although plausible, will as usual find no official confirmation. Charles Leclerc spoke about issues related to the chassis, which in technical jargon means everything and nothing specific. Regarding car balance, it should be said that there were not many problems for the Prancing Horse. As always, the mystery of Ferrari comes into play because explaining exactly what happened to the Scuderia is never an easy task.
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