Leclerc worried after Verstappen's third pit stop in Bahrain
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Charles Leclerc eventually drove to victory relatively easily in the closing stages of the Grand Prix, but at the press conference after the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Monegasque let it be known that he did have concerns about the alternate strategy of Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen.
Ferrari took a risk
Leclerc and Verstappen fought for a long time for the victory in Bahrain. In the end, it was the Ferrari driver who walked away with the victory, partly due to Verstappen's and Sergio Perez's retirements. Leclerc did pinch him for a moment when Verstappen came in for a third time, and Ferrari chose to keep him out.
''I felt quite nice at that point with my tyres to go to the end, but obviously when I saw that they would pit, I was a bit concerned. I made my thoughts clear to the team that maybe it would have been good to just cover him and stay in front and. A bit on the safer side but yeah, after they told me that we had to stay out, I just agreed,'' the Monegasque announced after the race.
''They have so much more data than I do in the car. And if they were confident to do so, it gave me the confidence to also just get on with my work, and bring the car home at the end,'' Leclerc concluded.
Bad luck for Verstappen
In the end, Leclerc had some luck, because shortly after Verstappen's pit stop the Virtual Safety Car and later the Safety Car came on track and the Ferrari driver could calmly enter the pits and still stay ahead of Verstappen. The Dutchman also struggled with steering problems and would even retire at the end due to a problem with the fuel supply. Whether Leclerc would have succeeded with the chosen strategy we will never know.