Charles Leclerc: Ferrari “did something wrong” with Las Vegas GP strategy

Charles Leclerc has questioned Ferrari’s strategy approach at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, admitting he felt the team “did something wrong” after being undercut by multiple rivals.

Leclerc made up for his disappointing qualifying display with an aggressive drive in Las Vegas. 

He looked on course for a top-four finish, but was undercut by Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri.

Due to a lack of straight-line speed, Leclerc was unable to challenge Piastri in the closing laps, with the McLaren driver benefitting from being in DRS range of Antonelli.

Leclerc had run ahead of the pair after an aggressive opening stint. He pulled off moves on Fernando Alonso, Isack Hadjar and Piastri to move into fourth once the pit stops played out.

Ferrari decided not to respond to Piastri’s undercut attempt, meaning Leclerc rejoined behind the McLaren driver. 

The team opted to run a higher-downforce package with Leclerc for the race, making overtaking difficult.

Speaking to F1 TV after the race, Leclerc questioned Ferrari’s strategy.

“Yeah I’m not sure the strategy… I had a bit of a feeling in the car we did something wrong,” he said.

“I think Oscar was behind, he undercut us. Other cars were behind that undercut us, also Antonelli undercutted us. It was a bit of a shame because there we lost a good opportunity to do something special.

“I felt like the pace was there but unfortunately I had Oscar in front who had DRS on Kimi and already I was on high downforce, and it was nearly impossible to overtake in the first stint.

“I had to take massive risks. In the second stint, it was impossible to overtake Oscar. He was way too fast. A bit of a shame for that second stint.”

Ferrari “paying the price” for wet pace

Leclerc’s weekend was severely hampered by his poor qualifying display. He was frustrated by how difficult his Ferrari was to drive in wet conditions.

Leclerc feels Ferrari have consistently struggled in the wet since he joined the team in 2019, citing the fact that Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton haven’t fared much better. 

He conceded that improving their performance in the wet will be a priority ahead of 2026.

“I’m disappointed. P6 is not what I wanted, especially after Thursday, which was very positive,” he added.

“The Friday was difficult in the rain and then the Saturday, very positive in terms of pace. Just starting too far away. We’ve got to really work on our wet pace because there’s been too many times the case where we’ve been on the back foot and we’re paying the price at the end of the year when you look at all the wet qualifyings, wet races, we’re leaving too many points on the table.

“This is for sure a priority that I will set myself from now on. It was already one but now it’s even higher because we’re struggling too much.”