Ferrari Admits He Was Worried Leclerc Won't Finish Racing At The Hungarian GP

Charles Leclerc, frustrated with Ferrari's condition (photo: x @f1)

JAKARTA The Ferrari team revealed that they were worried Charles Leclerc would not finish the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix after the racer from Monaco experienced a drastic decline in performance after the second pit stop.

Leclerc, who started from pole position, appeared dominant in the first 40 laps, but his performance plummeted after entering the pit on lap 40th. He finally had to settle for finishing fourth in the race won by Lando Norris from McLaren.

"The last destination condition was really a disaster, it was very difficult to drive, the balance was lost," said Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur. "Honestly, we don't know for sure what happened. We have to investigate whether there was damage to the chassis side or something else. At one point I think we won't be able to finish the race."

Leclerc recorded Ferrari's first full pole position this season outside Lewis Hamilton's pole sprint in Shanghai and managed to maintain its lead at the start of the race at Hungaroring, a well-known track that is difficult to overtake.

However, things changed after the pit stop of the two. Leclerc's car seemed to lose balance and grip significantly. Vasseur called this incident a strange' and showed that there were technical things beyond expectations affecting Leclerc's SF-25 performance.

McLaren managed to take advantage of the momentum when Leclerc began to lose speed. Lando Norris, who had dropped to fifth on the first lap, switched to a one-time pit stop strategy against the original plan of two pits. This strategy then led to an important victory.

Oscar Piastri, who had failed to overtake Leclerc through an undercut strategy, was finally able to finish second and reduce the difference in points from Norris, who is also his main rival in the world championship standings.

"We have to try something to beat Leclerc because it's not clear that we have speed to get through it directly," Piastri said. I don't know what happened to Charles in the second half of the race, but obviously something is because he was so fast at the start.

The Ferrari team will further investigate the causes of the decline in extreme performance experienced by Leclerc. Temporary suspicions lead to possible damage to the chassis component or problems in the car's aerodynamic equilibrium system.

On the other hand, Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton was unable to compete and only finished in 12th place away from the expectations of the team and fans.

The Hungarian GP is a bitter lesson for Ferrari, which initially seemed to dominate the race. The failure to maintain performance opened a big gap for McLaren to take over, and became a sign that there was still a lot of homework for the Jingkrak Horse team as F1 entered the summer break.