Leclerc had water, radio issues at Hungarian GP

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A nine-second pit stop, radio communication issues with his engineer and no water from his onboard drink system all contributed to a frustrating race for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leclerc finished seventh at the Hungaroring after a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropped him behind Mercedes’ George Russell after the chequered flag.

On lap 41 he appeared to question his tyre strategy, saying “it doesn’t make sense” and “what do you mean [we will discuss it] at the end?” in a garbled radio communication with his engineer.

Speaking to media after the race, Leclerc said he had been experiencing pit-to-car radio issues at the last four races and any apparent conflict with his engineer was a result of that.

“The problem is that we have also a lot of problems with the radio,” Leclerc explained. “One out of four words is not understood by my engineer because there is problems with our radio for three or four races.

“We need to fix that, and obviously, my tone of voice is quite high because I need to make myself heard.

“But I just wanted to make sure that they didn’t understand me wrong and that I wanted to go aggressive early and not aggressive late.

“It was just about clarifying because of our radio issues.”

Leclerc also revealed that, in the searing heat at the Hungaroring, he was unable to drink from his onboard water bottle during the race because the straw connected to his helmet was cut too short.

“Yes, I had no water. Just before the start I realised that the tube was too short so I couldn’t reach the water. It was really frustrating, but it’s like this.”

After finishing behind both Red Bulls, both McLarens and both Mercedes, Leclerc believes his Ferrari was more competitive than the result suggests.

He lost a significant chunk of time at his first pit stop when his car was stationary for nine seconds due to a wheel gun issue and then another five seconds as a result of a penalty for being 0.7km/h over the speed limit on the entry to the pits for his second stop.

“The pit stop was quite slow, we had a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, so again, that is difficult,” he said. “Honestly, it’s frustrating overall because I felt that the pace we had today, even as a driver when you are feeling like you are doing a good job with the car you have, nobody really notices it.

“When you are doing a bad job, everybody notices it. It’s difficult but in the end, it’s part of the game and it’s just up to us now to do a step forward as McLaren did.

“Now we are on the back foot, it’s been confirmed through the last three weekends. There is a lot of work to do.”