Charles Leclerc rips into his Ferrari in foul-mouthed COTA radio rant
Charles Leclerc was not happy over his team radio in US GP qualifying
An untelevised radio message from Charles Leclerc during qualifying at the Formula 1 US Grand Prix captures him tearing into his Ferrari.
The 2024 COTA race winner topped both of Friday’s practice sessions ahead of the US Grand Prix, before Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton was fastest in FP3.
This set Ferrari up for a pole tilt in qualifying later on Saturday, though both Hamilton and Leclerc struggled to replicate this pace.
Leclerc was the best of Ferrari runners in fourth, over two tenths from polesitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes. Hamilton was fifth.
“Absolutely awful”
An untelevised radio message from Leclerc has now emerged, where he slams the Ferrari’s tyre performance as “absolutely awful”.
“To much,” he raged. “F***, too much front wing.
“The tyres, for f*** sake, such a tiny window.
“It’s s***. It’s absolutely awful. Awful. It’s unbelievable. Crazy.”
Leclerc told Sky F1 after Saturday’s qualifying session that a slight change in track temperature made preparation much harder.
“Where we've lost is in ourselves, and that is mostly the tyres. The out lap was extremely difficult. There was a bit more cloud in Q3,” he said.
“We lost one or two degrees of track temp, and for us it was a night-and-day difference, and already from the out lap I felt like I was having lots of difficulties, and it's a shame that it happened in Q3 because I strongly believe that we had the pace to be fighting in front, but unfortunately not today again.
“The last time, I think I started from fourth here; I won, so I hope we can do the same tomorrow.”
Hamilton, on the other hand, said the car “was just as good as it was”, and that his qualifying woes were due to a power deficit to his rivals.
Ferrari hasn’t won a grand prix since Silverstone in early July with Leclerc, while Hamilton last stood on the top step of the podium at Barcelona in June.
