The Ferrari radio log shows that it was Charles Leclerc himself who made the wrong decision to use intermediates: Was a slide in turn 3 the trigger?
For Charles Leclerc, the Formula 1 race at Silverstone was over early on after a wrong decision. The Ferrari driver was one of the few drivers to pit in the early stages of the onset of rain and pick up intermediates – the wrong decision.
Because the track was not yet wet enough, the poker did not work. Leclerc lost massive ground on the competition on slicks and destroyed his tires so badly that he still had to get new intermediates when the competition was also forced to change to intermediates a few laps later.
Bitter from the Monegasque’s point of view: He was the only driver to mess up a good chance in the points. With Guanyu Zhou, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, only drivers at the back of the field took the risk.
However, as the radio transcript between Leclerc and his race engineer Bryan Bozzi shows, it was not a strategic mistake by Ferrari. Rather, Leclerc actively requested the intermediates himself and thus ruined his race.
Engineer: “Rain of higher intensity in two to three laps.”
Engineer: “We are now expecting heavier rain. It will come soon.”
Engineer: “The heavy rain should last two to three laps, then stop, and after that there could be more rain.”
Engineer: “Turn 15 is wet.”
Engineer: “The leaders are still out.”
Engineer: “It should stay like this for three to four laps.”
Engineer: “The lap times are still in favor of slicks. Inters at 1:40 minutes.”
Engineer: “Heavier rain in the pit lane, intensity two to three.”
Leclerc: “How long will it last?”
Engineer: “Another ten minutes.”
Engineer: “The leaders will stay out.”
Leclerc: “Get ready.”
Engineer: “We expect this to be the strongest at the moment and to last ten minutes. “
We went for an aggressive strategy which didn’t pan out. Looking forward to bouncing back in HungaryF1 BritishGP pic.twitter.com/NvL6VLW4JI
– Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 7, 2024
Shortly afterwards, Leclerc slides slightly off the track in turn 3, which probably leads him to want to switch to intermediates after all.
Leclerc: “Pit.”
Engineer: “Understood.”
When Leclerc comes through the Copse, Maggotts and Becketts area a few corners later, his opinion seems to change again.
Leclerc: “Wait a second with the pit stop, because parts of the track are quite dry here.”
On the hangar straight, however, he makes the final decision.
Leclerc: “Pit, pit.”
Engineer: “Understood, pit. We’re going for Inters. The leaders will stay out.”
After the race, Leclerc admitted that this was “clearly the wrong” decision because he was sometimes 15 seconds slower per lap than the leaders.
“With the decision, with the message I got and the information I had in the car, I felt it was the right one,” he said. “It was raining quite heavily at turn 15. I was told it was going to rain really hard on that lap, so I stopped and tried to adjust.”
“But the rain didn’t come until eight or nine laps later. That was obviously the end of our race from that moment on,” said the Monegasque, who only finished 14th in the end.
