Charles Leclerc finished the Budapest race with a fourth place, which, if we look at the progress of his weekend, can also be seen as a positive result. However, it is clear that for the Monegasque, fourth place at the foot of the podium, beyond the investigation of Lewis Hamilton, cannot be the kind of result that can make him leave Hungary with a smile.
An aspect that Leclerc himself made clear in the interviews at the end of the race because, although it is true that the race provided a little more satisfaction than qualifying with a hotter track, on the other hand the gap from McLaren remains present.
The strategy was probably not particularly successful, because in the first stint the choice was to extend the gap compared to the opponents by creating a greater offset in terms of tyre life, arriving at having one set with seven laps less than Lewis Hamilton and two less than Max Verstappen in the central phase of the race. However, for the last stint the choice was the opposite, anticipating the pit stop of the Monegasque driver without taking advantage of the delta created previously.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Leclerc actually came in for his final stop on the same lap as Hamilton, also fitting a softer tyre, which realistically would have suffered more degradation than the hard that, on the contrary, Mercedes had chosen for the Briton. A forced choice for Ferrari, which did not have a second set of hards, but at that point the race became complicated, because with Hamilton they were on the same strategy but on a softer tyre, while Verstappen was able to continue in free air, extending the stint.
“Today was better than expected. I felt like the pace was quite good. Then on a track like Budapest it’s very difficult to overtake, but we were in a good position. The second stint was very good. Then we had a choice for the last stint, whether to stop with Lewis and try to undercut Verstappen or stay out with Max,” explained Leclerc. Stopping nine laps later, Verstappen had an easy time of it on the Ferrari driver, quickly finding the overtaking position with DRS.
“We decided to come back in, which I don’t think was a bad choice, but it made our duration very complicated because I was on a very used tyre when Max passed me. So it was a difficult race, but the pace was there. But a fourth place is not enough to satisfy me. I mean, looking at the big picture, we are still far behind our main rivals in qualifying. And on tracks like this, we pay the price,” added the Prancing Horse driver.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Thanks to the accident between Verstappen and Hamilton, Leclerc managed to earn fourth place, but it is not enough, especially looking at McLaren. It is not only for the 20 seconds accumulated, but above all for the fact that, at this moment, the “papaya” car seems competitive everywhere and in many situations, while the Red has to deal with problems that it still has to understand if they have been solved or not.
“I think the pace in qualifying, especially with Carlos, who had a great lap, that was the gap. So it could be specific to this track, but yes, on a track like this, we were four tenths behind and I don’t think there was much more to extract,” added the Ferrari man, who is already looking ahead to Spa, knowing that on the fast corners of the Belgian track, the bouncing problems that Ferrari hoped to have solved with the new floor could emerge again.
In Budapest, there are few corners where this phenomenon of bouncing can occur and, given the lower speeds, it will not be as intense as on other much faster tracks. Sainz had in fact explained at the end of yesterday’s qualifying that, even on a track like the Hungarian one, he had actually felt some bouncing: “On a track like Spa, I think it will be a real test for us, because it is probably the track where I expect our problems to be most visible. We will see if we have confirmation that there is still a lot of work to do before we solve our problems or if the updates this weekend have helped us to make a step forward for these tracks”.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“The understanding is definitely going in the right direction. The problem we are facing is sort of on or off, it’s there or it’s not there, it’s hard to see improvements. What I’m talking about is mostly the rebound. But it’s not that you can improve the intensity. So when you have it, you have it. So we are taking steps in the right direction, whether it will be enough to not have it, I’m not sure yet.”
“But overall, we are lacking performance. Also, even if it is not a track where there are many bounces, you have to make compromises to not create them anywhere, even if it is only high-speed corners. So maybe we are not optimising everything precisely because we still have some of these problems.”
After qualifying, Vasseur said that Ferrari now has to think about developing and, above all, increasing the aerodynamic load of the SF-24, an important aspect to relaunch the ambitions of the Prancing Horse. In these conditions, according to Leclerc, the Reds are not the favorite on any track in the second part of the championship: “If the car stays like this, I don’t think we will be the favorites in any race. Monaco was a very, very specific track on which we were very strong. But that doesn’t mean we will be fast elsewhere during the season. So no, I don’t think, on paper, we are favorites anywhere.”
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