The Hungarian Grand Prix proved to be a perfect example of what could have been for Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.
Nobody expected anything other than a McLaren one-two in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
However, a change in wind direction in Q3 unsettled Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, opening the door for Charles Leclerc to take his 27th Formula 1 pole position.
Leclerc’s Ferrari was supremely quick over one lap, with teammate Lewis Hamilton failing to even reach Q3; there were some very mixed emotions in the team’s garages over the weekend.
Position Constructors’ Standings PointsPts 1 559 2 260 3 236 4 194 5 70 6 52 7 51 8 45 9 35 10 20
Hamilton telling Ferrari to choose another driver after his qualifying exit and point-less weekend has given team principal Fred Vasseur another issue to deal with, but he’ll be equally upset that Leclerc couldn’t convert his front row start into victory or even a podium finish.
Leclerc became a ‘sitting duck’ during the final stint of the race as his Ferrari encountered an unexpected issue.
Martin Brundle made a prediction after hearing a particularly irate radio message from Leclerc that ultimately came true just a few laps later.
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Photo by Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesMartin Brundle predicted Charles Leclerc’s Hungarian Grand Prix to fall apart after angry radio message
On the team radio during his final stint, Leclerc was heard saying: “This is so incredibly frustrating! We have 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 undrivable.
“Undriveable. It’s a miracle if we finish on the podium.”
In response to Leclerc’s message on Sky Sports F1 (4/8, 3:16 pm), Brundle and co-commentator David Croft discussed his struggles.
Croft said: “And he’s right in that, because George Russell’s a second-per-lap faster.
“Charles Leclerc, for two-thirds of this race, before the final pit stop, before Oscar Piastri got up to him, was driving beautifully, and everything seemed OK from the outside, although not from within.
“And now his race is falling apart. Whatever those issues are, he is clearly furious, and it’s destroying his race.”
RANKDRIVERTEAMPOINTS1Lando NorrisMcLaren252Oscar PiastriMcLaren183George RussellMercedes154Charles LeclercFerrari125Fernando AlonsoAston Martin106Gabriel BortoletoSauber87Lance StrollAston Martin68Liam LawsonRacing Bulls49Max VerstappenRed Bull210Kimi AntonelliMercedes1
Brundle replied: “Yeah, he needs to somehow park that for now, though, he’s absolutely angry as you say.
“But, a car driven in anger tends to go sideways or backwards more than it does forwards, you’ve got to park that and get your head down, and do the talking afterwards.
“It must be some kind of power unit management situation, mustn’t it? Something he wanted to address in a different way.
“Tyre pressures are kind of limited because you’ve got to run a minimum blanket and track pressure.”
Brundle’s prediction that a driver who is ‘clearly furious’ tends to go backwards came true, even if he tried a very aggressive move on George Russell to try and retain third place, which ultimately led to him being given a penalty.
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Charles Leclerc takes back furious Hungarian Grand Prix radio message after Ferrari explanation
Ferrari never revealed the true extent of what went wrong with Leclerc’s car during the race.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the Grand Prix, Leclerc explained: “First of all, I need to take back the words I’ve said on the radio because I thought that it was coming from one thing, but then I got a lot more details since I got out of the car.
“It was actually an issue coming from the chassis and nothing that we could have done differently.
“I started to feel the issue in lap 40 or something like that, and then it got worse, lap after lap after lap, and towards the end, we were two seconds off the pace. And the car was just undrivable.”
Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 284 2 275 3 187 4 172 5 151 6 109 7 64 8 54 9 37 10 27
It’s a result that leaves Leclerc marooned in fifth place in the drivers’ championship, when it should have catapulted him into contention to be the best of the rest behind the McLaren drivers.
There are question marks over whether Ferrari are helping Leclerc reach his full potential, as he’s yet to be given a championship-challenging car during seven seasons with the Scuderia.
He and Hamilton will hope that changes next year when the sport’s regulations are completely overhauled.