Photo: Scuderia Ferrari Press Office
We can’t help but feel bad for Charles Leclerc following yesterday’s Monaco Grand Prix. You don’t need to be a Ferrari fan in order to understand how important a home race is to a driver and Leclerc was, of course, born in Monaco.
The Ferrari driver seemed well on his way to winning the race, seen as how he was in first place before pitting in order to switch from full wets to intermediate tires on lap 18. That’s not what ruined his race, though.
What happened was that his team called him back into the pit lane to make another switch (for hard tires), only to immediately tell him to stay out and not come in – it was unfortunately too late, as the Monegasque driver had already entered the pits at that point. The call to stay out came way too late, so it definitely wasn’t his fault.
To make matters worse, Ferrari chose to double-stack their cars at that moment, which cost Leclerc an extra four seconds. When he was finally released from the pit lane, he found himself fourth behind Sergio Perez (who went on to win the race), Sainz and title rival Max Verstappen.
“No words – the season is long, but we cannot do that,” said Leclerc to his race engineer over team radio.
“It was a freaking disaster today,” he added. “The win was clearly in our hands, we had the performance, we had everything. I just don’t really understand the call that I had, and I need explanations for now. I couldn’t do much, I was called just before the last corner, so I couldn’t react or ask for any information, but that was clearly the wrong choice. We need to get better.”
After Monaco, Leclerc trails Verstappen in the 2022 Driver Standings by 9 points with a total of 116 points to the Red Bull driver’s 125 points.
What happened was that his team called him back into the pit lane to make another switch (for hard tires), only to immediately tell him to stay out and not come in – it was unfortunately too late, as the Monegasque driver had already entered the pits at that point. The call to stay out came way too late, so it definitely wasn’t his fault.
To make matters worse, Ferrari chose to double-stack their cars at that moment, which cost Leclerc an extra four seconds. When he was finally released from the pit lane, he found himself fourth behind Sergio Perez (who went on to win the race), Sainz and title rival Max Verstappen.
“No words – the season is long, but we cannot do that,” said Leclerc to his race engineer over team radio.
“It was a freaking disaster today,” he added. “The win was clearly in our hands, we had the performance, we had everything. I just don’t really understand the call that I had, and I need explanations for now. I couldn’t do much, I was called just before the last corner, so I couldn’t react or ask for any information, but that was clearly the wrong choice. We need to get better.”
After Monaco, Leclerc trails Verstappen in the 2022 Driver Standings by 9 points with a total of 116 points to the Red Bull driver’s 125 points.
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