Leclerc Suggests Red Bull And McLaren Are Doing Something 'Weird' With Their Engines

Monday, 20 May 2024 at 12:00

Charles Leclerc revealed where he thought Ferrari lost the battle against their rivals during the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Weekend.

Even though Ferrari scored a podium during the seventh race weekend of the season at Imola Circuit, the team, especially Charles Leclerc, wasn't so satisfied with the result.

Speaking to the media ahead of the race, the 26-year-old said his only goal was to win. Unfortunately, after 63 laps of the race, he wasn't able to achieve that goal.

Starting from P3, Leclerc had probably the best opportunity to overtake Lando Norris (in P2) into the first corner, but he decided to play it safe and braked a bit earlier than the McLaren driver.

The top three drivers, Max Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc, had all very similar paces, and the Monegasque came very close to overtaking Norris after the mandatory pit stop.

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However, he made a mistake going into turn 14, losing him valuable time. That gave the 24-year-old McLaren driver some breathing room, and he then took off chasing the leading Dutchman.

Ultimately, Leclerc crossed the finish line in the same position where he started, but he didn't think there was much more he could do in the race. He told Sky Sports:

"I think our race pace is very, very strong. I'm more optimistic than yesterday looking back at the qualifying because this is where I think we are lacking on a weekend like this."

The 26-year-old proposed that the biggest problem for Ferrari was the qualifying session, in which he finished P4 but moved into P3 to go into the race because of Oscar Piastri's penalty.

Leclerc and Ferrari would have analyzed the data. Interestingly, he said his team lost everything on the straight and mysteriously suggested there is something weird that Red Bull and McLaren do with their engines.

"We lost everything in the straights, and they are doing something weird with the energy, engine-wise, McLaren and Red Bull."

"We will look into that. Once we fix that, we’ve got a real shot of going back onto the top step of the podium."