Charles Leclerc pulls back the curtain on the mysterious Ferrari issue that cost him a potential race win in the F1 Hungarian GP

A distraught Charles Leclerc revealed to the media that the issue that compromised his F1 Hungarian GP was something with the chassis. The Ferrari driver has been a standout all weekend, and it all begins with the driver securing pole position out of the blue on Saturday.

Once that was done, it brought him into contention for the win. The track in Hungary is such that overtaking is not easy. As a result, if Charles Leclerc was able to hold the lead at the start of the race, he could potentially make things work.

The Ferrari driver was able to nail the start and was quite comfortably leading the race. At the point of his second out stop, the driver was still leading the race and was potentially in line to win.

As soon as he came out of the pits after the second stop, the driver just didn't have the pace to compete. First, it was Oscar Piastri who breezed past him, and then it was George Russell, relegating him to a P4 finish. During the race, it did appear that this was a result of some setup changes that Leclerc had first protested against. Talking to Sky Sports later on, Leclerc revealed that it was a case of an issue with the chassis. He said,

“I spoke too quickly I guess because getting out of the car I got a few more details about what went on. I thought it was about something else that we had discussed but unfortunately it was a problem on the chassis. There was an issue on that side so we will look into it for it to not happen again"

Charles Leclerc still unhappy with the result

Charles Leclerc was potentially on course to win the F1 Hungarian GP, as the driver was on fresher tires with Lando Norris on older tires ahead of him. Looking at the kind of pace the Ferrari driver had shown, he would have been in contention. The issue, however, meant that the driver would end the race with not even a podium. Looking back, the driver wasn't willing to look at just the positives, as he said,

“It doesn’t make me feel any better because when you are fighting for a win and then you have those kind of issues. We need to look at it for it to never happen again as the car was just undriveable. It was a one-off so it’s something we need to look into but I don’t think it’s something we will have ever again."

He added,

“It was around lap 40 when we started to have the issue and then it got worse and worse. It’s very frustrating to have everything under control, have the pace in the car to win, and then you are nowhere. We’re not even on the podium.”

From going for a win, Charles Leclerc ended up finishing P4 in a race where the driver had the pace to win for the most part. The Ferrari driver would be disappointed because he was putting together a race weekend that was worthy of a win.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli