The day may still be far from over for Ferrari in Spain. Although the Scuderia claimed an unforeseen podium with Charles Leclerc, the position lost by the British driver to Hülkenberg hints at deeper troubles. And the issues weren’t limited to Lewis Hamilton—Fred Vasseur revealed that Charles Leclerc also experienced difficulties.
The two Ferrari drivers surprised everyone with a rocket start that immediately allowed them to get ahead of both Mercedes cars. Leclerc then appeared clearly more competitive than Hamilton, and after a brief defense, the Briton let his teammate through.
The Monegasque set off in pursuit of Verstappen and thus the podium. However, the yellow tyre compound didn’t play in the 1997-born driver’s favor, while Red Bull’s three-stop strategy allowed the Dutchman to build a gap.
This changed with the arrival of the Safety Car, which allowed everyone to make a final tyre change. With a significant compound advantage over the four-time world champion, Charles Leclerc saw his chance and went on the attack.
Unfortunately, in completing the overtake on the straight, he slightly squeezed Mx Verstappen. For this reason, the Monegasque was summoned by the stewards to investigate the incident and risked losing the podium he secured.
On the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton—who had been faster than his teammate during the second stint—completely dropped off after the Safety Car. Nico Hülkenberg in the Stake even overtook driver #44, and Hadjar nearly had his opportunity as well.
After the race, in the media pen, Lewis Hamilton appeared very downcast about his P6 finish, even stating that he had just experienced the worst race of his life. Later, during Ferrari’s press conference we attended, Frederic Vasseur confirmed the driver had encountered issues with the car.
“A controversy could be made out of this, but that’s not necessary,” the Frenchman told the media present, including F1inGenerale. “I think he spent 70% of the race ahead of George Russell—I’m not sure Russell said it was a disaster. Then we had a problem on the car in the last stint before the Safety Car, and the result isn’t good, but he did 45 laps ahead of Russell.”
Fred Vasseur then refused to give further details on the issue, but added that Charles Leclerc also faced unexpected difficulties. “We had a small problem on the other car too, but it wasn’t related to oil,” he said, referring to Wolff’s claim of having seen a leak from car #16.
“I don’t know where it came from, maybe the car behind, but that wasn’t it.”
Alongside these issues, which will certainly need internal investigation, there was also the looming threat of a penalty for Charles Leclerc, who thankfully avoided any penalty.
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