Ferrari has outlined the conclusions of its investigation into Charles Leclerc’s mysterious pace collapse in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix, officially ruling out anything having broken on his car.
Leclerc appeared to have had things under control in the early stages of the Budapest race, having started from pole position and he was able to hold back McLaren’s Oscar Piastri over the opening two stints.
But his afternoon derailed after his final pit-stop, when his pace dramatically dropped off resulting in him falling down the order and eventually coming home fourth.
Neither the Monegasque nor his Ferrari squad had an immediate explanation for what had happened, with team principal Fred Vasseur saying they were baffled about why things had turned so much.
"The situation was quite strange," he explained immediately after the race. "We were under control for the first 40 laps of the race.
“We were in control for the first stint, a bit more difficult for the second one, but it was still manageable. The last stint was a disaster, very difficult to drive.
"The balance was not there. Honestly so far we don't know exactly what's happened. We have to investigate if we have something broken on the chassis side or whatever. At one stage I thought that we would never finish the race."
Leclerc had suspected that the issue was more related to the chassis rather than being an engine problem, with Ferrari awaiting the return of the car to Maranello before digging into what happened further.
With that work now completed, around the restrictions imposed by the summer break, Ferrari has concluded that nothing did break on the car and Leclerc’s issues in that last stint were almost certainly caused by changes made to his car in his final pit-stop.
This is understood to relate to an increase in tyre pressures that Ferrari made for Leclerc’s final set of tyres, plus an alteration made to the front wing.
A Ferrari spokesperson confirmed that the combination of tweaks had an adverse effect on the handling of the car, where the balance shifted in a way that had not been expected.
While the trigger for the changes in the pit-stop have not been explained in detail, they were almost certainly prompted by Ferrari needing to protect its plank from wearing away too much, which has been something it has been battling all season.
By raising the tyre pressures, this helps lift the car slightly – so will help avoid the plank striking the ground too much.
However, the downside of doing this is that there is less rubber in contact with the track so there are consequences in terms of pace, balance and tyre temperatures.
Ferrari found out to its cost at the Chinese Grand Prix that the way it runs its car can expose it to the risk of the plank wearing too much, with Lewis Hamilton being disqualified after the Shanghai race.
Speaking before the summer break, Ferrari boss Vasseur had admitted that the fallout of that Chinese disqualification has overshadowed much of its campaign.
“We lost a little bit the ground with the disqualification at the beginning,” he said.
“We had to take a margin. And the sensitivity of the ride height on these cars, it's huge.
"Each millimetre is one position on the grid. So it means that if you start to have to be safe because you are not in full control, then it's impacting massively the performance.”
