Charles Leclerc has urged Ferrari to take a closer look at Red Bull’s race-day execution after the Scuderia’s opening tyre gamble at Sepang left both drivers scrambling to recover in last weekend’s chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix.
Starting second and fourth, Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc both started the race on Pirelli’s soft tyres while Red Bull put Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar on intermediates. The call proved disastrous almost immediately as rain left the slick-shod Ferraris sliding backwards, with Leclerc forced into the pits at the end of the opening lap.
The irony was hard to miss. Ferrari eventually salvaged third and fourth, while Verstappen converted pole into victory, giving Leclerc another reason to wonder why Red Bull so consistently seems to navigate such strategic minefields better than its rivals.
Ferrari’s gamble leaves Leclerc looking at Red Bull
Leclerc insists the decision was not imposed on him by Ferrari, but he believes the team must examine why Red Bull appears so much more adept at protecting itself when conditions become unpredictable.
“I was aligned with the team,” said the Monegasque. “It was a close call as it is always in these conditions and we'll speak whether to split the cars in those conditions is the best possible way.
“But it's also true that when you split the cars, by definition there's one very wrong choice and one very good choice and it's very difficult to have an in-between scenario where both scenarios kind of pans out the same.
“So we thought we were doing the right thing obviously, but clearly there's one team in particular – and that is Red Bull – that gets it right most of the time with both cars.
“For that we need to understand what they are doing better than we do.”
The water Ferrari failed to see
Ahead of the start of the race, the track looked deceptively dry in places, creating the temptation to gamble on slicks despite the lingering rain.
Ferrari's calculations suggested the risk was worth taking, but the asphalt contained considerably more standing water than expected.
“It’s very difficult, it was the same for everybody,” added Leclerc. “I think even though we had a bit of data on our side, it's in conditions that have nothing to do with the conditions we had today.
“So yeah, it was based on intuition, on looking at the ground, and the surface looked pretty dry.
“The thing is that the biggest question mark we've had is how much water there is in the holes of the tarmac, and there was a lot more water than I think the majority thought there was, and that's why the slick ended up being the wrong decision.”
The Ferrari drivers were therefore left to perform a recovery act after throwing away much of their early track position. Both eventually climbed back into the top four, although George Russell’s late Mercedes retirement also helped Leclerc and Hamilton’s final positions.
For Leclerc, the result ultimately masked how turbulent the afternoon had been.
“Our end result is quite representative from where we would have hoped to finish,” he said. “Kimi [Antonelli] and Max were just too strong for us today and we were right after and we finished P3, P4.
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“But it's been a strange race. I think everything that could have gone wrong at the first part of the race went wrong and everything that could have gone right in the second part of the race went right.
“At the end of the day, both extremes balanced each other out and we are finishing where we should have finished. But it's been a bit more of a sweaty race than what I would have hoped.”
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