Frederic Vasseur Can’t “Understand” How Charles Leclerc Found Incredible Pace Despite Front-Wing Damage

Charles Leclerc’s Chinese GP got off to a nervy start after a first-lap collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton cost him a piece of his front wing. Yet, instead of hampering his progress, the incident seemed to improve his pace.

Fans on social media were astounded, struggling to understand how the #16 driver suddenly found speed in his SF-25 despite the damage—especially on a weekend where he had struggled to get to grips with the car. Many recalled how this was a recurring trend.

Naturally, this was one of the questions posed to Team Principal Frederic Vasseur in the aftermath of the weekend. But surprisingly, even he has no idea how the Monegasque performed so well, despite losing 20-25 points of downforce.

“We need to understand exactly what happened, because honestly we were surprised by Charles’ pace,” the Frenchman said to AutoRacer.

Leclerc started the Grand Prix from P6 but seemed poised for a much stronger finish. He was so fast that Hamilton voluntarily let the 27-year-old through, admitting he was struggling more. Unfortunately for Ferrari, Leclerc couldn’t climb higher than P5, with Hamilton finishing P6.

But Vasseur feels that was the best Ferrari could have done on the day. “We are still on the limit to get the best out of the car and the team and we need to improve in this area,” he added.

It was surprising to see Ferrari’s weekend unravel following Hamilton’s sprint pole and victory on Friday and Saturday respectively. But Leclerc revealed that the seven-time champion’s performance was simply an anomaly. In his view, Ferrari was around “three-tenths off McLaren.”

Things got worse for the Maranello-based outfit thereafter. Their decent points haul got taken away from them in the hours after the Grand Prix ended because of technical irregularities with the SF-25.

Ferrari’s gut-wrenching double disqualification

P5 and P6 were far from where Ferrari had hoped to finish, but given their step up from eighth and tenth in Australia, they would have taken it. However, the FIA found that Leclerc‘s car was 1 kg underweight, while Hamilton’s had excessive skid wear (0.5 mm under the limit).

Both drivers were disqualified, rendering Leclerc’s heroics with a damaged front wing futile.

It was a major blow to Ferrari’s early-season championship hopes, dropping them to P5 in the standings behind Williams. Beyond performance, the team must also eliminate costly errors—like those in Shanghai—that wiped out their points entirely.