Charles Leclerc U-turns after angry rant, as cause of Ferrari problem explained

Charles Leclerc has confirmed that an issue with his chassis caused his sudden loss of pace at the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leclerc led the race at the Hungaroring from pole position, leading Oscar Piastri for the first half of the race.

Ferrari put Leclerc on a two-stop strategy, dropping him behind Lando Norris.

Immediately, Leclerc started to lose time to Norris, despite being on 10-lap fresher tyres.

It led to an angry radio message from Leclerc.

He said: “This is so incredibly frustrating,” Leclerc said. “We’ve lost all competitiveness.

“You just have to listen to me, I would have found a different way of managing those issues. Now it’s just undriveable, undriveable! It’s a miracle if we finish on the podium.”

U-turn for Charles Leclerc after Hungarian Grand Prix

Leclerc backtracked on his complaints over team radio by revealing an unusual issue with his chassis.

“Well, first of all, I need to take back the words I said on the radio because I thought it was coming from one thing, and then I got a lot more details since I got out of the car,” Leclerc said after the race in Budapest.

“It was actually an issue coming from the chassis and nothing we could have done differently. I started to feel the issue on Lap 40 or something like that.

“It got worse, lap after lap after lap and towards the end we were two-seconds off the pace. The car was just undriveable. I repeat myself, this was an issue and it’s an outlier. It shouldn’t ever happen again. I am still very disappointed.

“We had one opportunity this year, which I think this was this weekend. The first stint was perfect. The first laps of the second stint was pretty good as well. I could pull away in pace to try and win that race.

“The last stint was a disaster when I started to have that chassis issue.”

Leclerc doubts Ferrari can challenge McLaren again

Charles Leclerc feels this was Ferrari’s only chance to beat McLaren this season.

Ferrari are still without a victory in F1 2025, while the other top three teams have already stood on the top step this year. 

Leclerc doubts Ferrari will be able to beat McLaren on merit despite showing impressive pace before his issue.

“I am not sure. I don’t think so. I think they’re the strongest team out there,” Leclerc added.

“Even today, they were very, very fast. I think on a track like this what gives me hope of winning was that we were starting first and the dirty air, it’s a struggle to get past. I think Oscar probably had a bit more pace than me but couldn’t overtake.

“I don’t think we’re going into the second half of the season thinking we can win anywhere. That’s what makes the frustration even bigger as this was one of the chances of the season and we had to take it. Unfortunately, with this issue we couldn’t do that.”