Ferrari boss reacts to Charles Leclerc raging at his engineer over key blunder

Team principal Frederic Vasseur has reacted to Ferrari making a mistake after a late call hampered Charles Leclerc’s performance.

Charles Leclerc had been leading Lewis Hamilton at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix before Lance Stroll’s exit from the race on lap 18 sparked a safety car.

Miscommunication from the Monegasque’s race strategist, Xavier Marcos Padros, cost him his place when he was informed too late to “push from Safety Car Line One” after the Mercedes driver went into the pits.

“’Xavi, you need to tell me that before,” Leclerc fumed on the radio, with the Ferrari strategist replying simply “Copy.”

“No, but come on,” Leclerc continued.  

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“Being behind like this is really s***. I don’t know what to do,” Leclerc would later tell his team over the radio before finishing seventh behind his teammate and both Mercedes drivers.

The mistake was a blow to new team principal Frederic Vasseur, who was brought in to take Ferrari back to winning ways after flawed strategy calls and reliability issues cost the team a title shot in 2022. 

Speaking to RacingNews365.com, Vasseur has accepted that the situation in Saudi Arabia was “not a good call,” admitting it was a “mistake from our side.”

“I don’t want to say it’s details. It was a miscommunication and we will have to speak, to fix it. It’s not the main issue at all over the weekend,” he continued.

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With Red Bull having secured a one-two finish in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the team leads Aston Martin in the 2023 Constructors’ Championship standings by 49 points.

Ferrari is down in fourth place behind Mercedes, in part due to Leclerc’s retirement in Bahrain following a suspected power unit issue.

The 2023 Drivers’ Standings make even more painful reading for Leclerc, as he finds himself in eighth place with only six points, far behind championship leader Max Verstappen’s 44 points.