Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) on the chaotic GP at Sepang: “It was a strange race”

The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia got off to a very difficult start for the two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton – but ended on a positive note. At the end of this chaotic Grand Prix, they still managed to finish third (Hamilton) and fourth (Leclerc).

Leclerc said after the race: “It was a strange race. I think everything that could have gone wrong in the first half of the race did go wrong, and everything that could have gone right in the second half did go right. So, in the end, it all sort of balanced itself out. The two extremes cancelled each other out and we ended up where we were meant to be. But it was a more nerve-wracking race than I’d hoped for.”

It had been raining at the time the race was originally due to start, which is why the start was postponed. When all the drivers finally took to the track (initially on intermediates), several cars, including the Ferraris, experienced software issues (read here to find out what was behind it). As a result, the start was abandoned and postponed. By the time of the next attempted start, the track was almost dry. The teams had made very different decisions regarding tyres: Ferrari, however, sent both cars out on dry tyres.

Leclerc on tyre choice: A close call

Was Leclerc in agreement with this? “I was on the same page as the team, yes. I think it was a close call, as is always the case in these conditions. We’ll discuss whether, under these conditions, it would be the better strategy to split the cars, but it’s also true that, if you split the cars, by definition there’s one very wrong decision and one very good one. And it’s very difficult to find a middle ground where both scenarios turn out more or less the same. So, naturally, we thought we were doing the right thing.” Some teams had sent out one driver on intermediates and one on dry tyres. Ferrari had gambled on slicks for both. Both fell far behind in the early stages of the race and lost time. Leclerc, who was even in last place for a short while, said: “There’s clearly one team – namely Red Bull – that usually gets it right with both cars. And to achieve that, we need to understand what they’re doing better than us.”

In the end, it turned out that it was still too wet for slicks. Leclerc came in for a tyre change and switched to intermediates. Hamilton took a gamble and stayed out. Leclerc on the decision-making process: “It was based on intuition, on the fact that the track looked pretty dry. The thing is: the biggest question mark we had was how much water was sitting in the grooves of the tarmac. And there was far more water there than most people had probably thought. And that’s why the slicks were ultimately the wrong decision.” Yet despite the wrong tyre choice, both Ferraris still finished in the top four. That’s something, at least!

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