Ferrari strategy woes continue after Leclerc radio confusion in Spanish GP
Leclerc endured a torrid weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he was knocked out in Q1 for the first time since Monaco 2019.
His race didn’t go much better as he failed to recover to finish inside the points.
His afternoon was compromised by an uninspiring strategy, starting on the hards and stopping after just 17 laps.
Even on the soft tyre, Leclerc struggled to make much progress.
After struggling on the hards earlier in the race, Leclerc told Ferrari he wanted to go to the soft, as revealed by this radio exchange with engineer Xavier Padros.
Padros: “Box this lap for hard.”
Leclerc: “No, no, no, let’s go soft guys.”
Padros: “Copy that.”
Leclerc: “Box anyway?”
Padros: “Box now, box!”
Leclerc: “Box.”
Padros: “We are doing hard. We are doing hard.”
One criticism of Leclerc in the past was his failure to be direct over team radio with regards to strategy decisions.
That is one area teammate Carlos Sainz is very impressive at - dictating or questioning Ferrari’s strategy.
However, on this occasion, the team ignored their star driver’s request.
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
