A full investigation into the unspecified car problem that Charles Leclerc experienced, which resulted in him losing a podium position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, will be required, according to the Ferrari Formula One team.
Before taking the lead in the first few phases of Sunday's 70-lap competition, Leclerc surprised everyone by claiming the pole position ahead of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren. At one point, it appeared as though he might at least finish on the podium, but his SF-25 had a significant decline in performance during the last stint.
Ferrari to Fully Investigate Leclerc's Strange Pace Drop in Hungarian GP
This includes falling behind both McLarens and, later, Mercedes' George Russell. Leclerc's abrupt collapse caught Ferrari off guard.
After learning of the underlying issue with the vehicle, the driver rectified himself after originally believing Ferrari had performed a front wing alteration during the second and last pitstop that had ruined his car's balance.
On Sunday night, team principal Fred Vasseur stated that it was too soon to determine the precise cause of Leclerc's pace loss, but he implied that it went much beyond the team's typical precautions against board wear in the second half of a grand prix.
"In past races, we lost two or three tenths of a second after we lost the pace. We lost two seconds today. "A little different," said Vasseur.
"To be honest, we don't know precisely what's occurred so far, and the previous stint was a disaster—very hard to drive, and the balance wasn't there.
"We need to look into whether there is a problem with the chassis side. I once believed that we were fortunate to finish fourth in the race and that we would never make it. It's unexpected since we could have fixed it if we had known earlier.
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Ferrari Suspects Chassis or Ride Height Issues for Charles Leclerc's Podium Loss
Leclerc also claimed that Hungary was a singular occurrence. "No, it was a one-off," he told them. "Since the automobile was just undriveable, we must examine it to ensure that it never occurs again. However, I doubt that we will find it somewhere in the future.
Russell, however, stated that Mercedes believed Leclerc's demise was caused by Ferrari's well-known ride height problems.
Ferrari has had to take steps to avoid more legal issues after Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton was banned in China for excessive plank wear. These steps include lifting the vehicle, lowering engine modes, and raising tire pressures to keep the cars from bottoming.
"The only thing we can think of is they were running the car too low to the ground, and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint," Russell stated to Sky.
"Because they were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank wear.