Charles Leclerc had to contend with severe brake problems in the Bahrain race: The temperature difference was more than 100 degrees Celsius
A problem with the brakes cost Charles Leclerc a better opening result in the Formula 1 race in Bahrain. The Monegasque finished fourth in Sachir behind his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, but had to manage a brake problem throughout the race, where the temperature difference between the two sides is said to have been more than 100 degrees.
“That was a very, very frustrating race,” said an annoyed Leclerc. “I waited a long time for the race and wanted to show what we were capable of. But in the end, we couldn’t show anything at all with me because we were completely out of the norm in terms of braking.”
Leclerc had started from the front row alongside Max Verstappen, but had nothing to counter the Dutchman. What’s more, the Monegasque kept braking and frequently went off track, especially in turn 10.
“I couldn’t get around turn 9/10 on the first ten laps. Although I had a lot of rear brake balance, I locked up the front wheels every lap,” he explained. “It got worse and worse in the first ten laps, which is why I made so many mistakes.”
He says that he then always braked three meters earlier, “but I still locked the front wheels.”
Leclerc was extremely frustrated in the car: “I think we can forget about driving,” he grumbled on the radio in the meantime. “It’s pulling everywhere. I always don’t know what the car is going to do. “
Ferrari changed component before race
The team then informed him that there was a temperature difference of more than 100 degrees Celsius between the left and right front brakes. “That’s huge,” says Leclerc. “From then on, I realized that it would be best if I just brought the car to the finish line.”
Around lap 15 or 20, the problem at least stabilized, so that Leclerc was able to adjust better. “Nevertheless, it still felt terrible,” he says. But the difficulties never went away completely
Not the Bahrain GP we wanted for @Charles_Leclerc, still we took some good points away from the weekend BahrainGP F1 pic. twitter.com/Ow5MZRFDfF
– Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 2, 2024
Leclerc does not know what caused the problem – partly because it had never occurred before. What is interesting in this context, however, is that Ferrari changed something on the left front brake of Leclerc’s car before the race: a so-called “Brake Duct Exit Deflector” – i.e. a deflector at the exit of the brake duct.
Ferrari must now find out whether this is connected
Overtaking maneuver against Russell
Despite this, Leclerc managed to fight his way back to the front as the race progressed. He even overtook George Russell again after the latter made the mistake in turn 10 that Leclerc had made so often up to that point. Without that he probably wouldn’t have got past, he believes
LAP 46/57
Leclerc’s pressure pays off. Russell locks up and runs wide as he tries to defend
Leclerc’s up to P4 behind his team mate Sainz in P3F1 BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/7zeooHZUeB
– Formula 1 (@F1) March 2, 2024
“I think it would have been very difficult for me to overtake George, even though I was faster, if he hadn’t made that mistake,” he says. “He was pretty good in the last corner, so I had to come from very far back. But with the brakes, it was very difficult for me to take that risk.”
In view of the circumstances, Leclerc considers it “a really good performance” that he was able to finish fourth despite all the difficulties, “but of course I’m still very disappointed with the result. I really believe that second place would have been very possible today. “
Leclerc believes: Second place would have been possible
But Ferrari had to concede the one-two to Red Bull. Max Verstappen in particular was miles ahead of the competition, with Leclerc wondering how close he could have been to the world champion.
“I was really optimistic this morning as I had hoped that my car would be better in terms of race pace, but unfortunately we couldn’t confirm that today,” he laments. “We’ll have to wait until Jeddah to see if the gap between Max and us is as expected or bigger. “
There was absolutely nothing to take from his own race on Saturday because the car felt so bad and he had to change his entire driving style. “I think that cost a lot of performance, but it’s difficult to say how much,” says the Ferrari driver.
But there are also positives: “I was quite surprised when I heard the pace at the end of the race, because we set relatively good lap times,” he says. “So all in all, the pace was better than I would have expected with such a problem. However, it is difficult to determine the actual performance exactly. “
