For ages, Ferrari has led the debate for the most complicated mid-race radio conversations. It has sometimes become a source of mockery with the lengthy back and forths during the race with the drivers. The discussions usually revolve around strategy, an example of which we saw in Shanghai where Charles Leclerc and Co. opted for “Plan D”. Now, the Monegasque has revealed it’s all a ploy to confuse the opposition.
Leclerc made the revelation in a post-race interview as highlighted by user @vetteleclerc on X (formerly Twitter). When asked to elaborate on Plan D and if it’s not the go-to plan, Leclerc revealed, “Not necessarily. If you put your favorite option on Plan A the other teams know. So we change the order to not give the other teams clues about our strategies!”
Plan D was to do a one stop?
I guess if it’s Plan D, it was not the plan you wanted the most?Charles: “Not necessarily. If you put your favourite option on Plan A the other teams know.
So we change the order to not give the other teams clues about our strategies!”#ChineseGP— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) April 21, 2024
“But yeah today Plan D was not the one we wanted to do but with the safety car we couldn’t do something else,” he added. Ferrari confuses their opponents by not following alphabetical chronology. Sometimes they don’t even have a Plan A, it might start from F.
Although, it’s still unclear what Plan D entailed if it was going for a one-stopper as many assumed. However, even if it wasn’t their go-to plan, the Italian team did not have a choice because of the safety cars. This is exactly how Lando Norris had the beating of Leclerc.
Lando Norris shocked Charles Leclerc and Co. with an incredible performance
Despite qualifying in P6 for the race, Leclerc had podium ambitions. His ambitions would’ve been fulfilled, however, the safety cars during the Grand Prix foiled those plans. He explained how he had hopes when he was racing with medium compounds. However, the SF-24 was struggling on the hards which made it clear a podium would be out of reach.
Charles: “The performance clearly disappeared with the hard tyres.
We were on a pretty good strategy but then with the safety car, it kind of puts everyone on the same strategy and on the hard tyres, it was more difficult than we had imagined.
McLaren was quicker.
When we were…— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) April 21, 2024
Despite maintaining his P4 and above form, the Monegasque and his entire team were undone by the surprise pace of the McLaren. Norris was rapid throughout the weekend and he maintained the level during the race as well. The Briton beat Leclerc and even Sergio Perez in P3 on merit and secured the second step of the podium.
However, this performance was a surprise for everyone, including Norris. He admitted in the post-race interview and expressed he wasn’t expecting this level of output during the race. “I don’t know why, I really wasn’t expecting it to be the kind of race we had today,” he confessed.
