Coming on the back of an ecstatic win at Monza, Charles Leclerc had a rough start to the Azerbaijan GP weekend in Baku. The Monegasque had a crash into the wall in FP1 itself and wasn’t happy with his car in FP2 as well. Leclerc expressed his anger on the team radio in the second practice session, complaining about a part of the car being bent and it wasn’t helping him drive the car smoothly.
While the Ferrari pit wall gave their template response of “checking” the issue, they affirmed that the #16 driver can continue to stay out. This miffed Leclerc immensely. He replied in anger,
“Guys, I’m not going to drive this car anymore. I’m going to stop in the pits. It’s impossible for you not to be able to see that in the data..”
Spoiler: Despite the radio rant, Leclerc’s back on track with the fastest lap!#F1 #AzerbaijanGP #CharlesLeclerc pic.twitter.com/m8wLEKAR7Q
— Sports Info (@sportsinfofeed) September 13, 2024
The issue was a result of the FP1 crash Leclerc had. The Monegasque driver could not turn his car into turn 15 and crashed the front of the SF-24 into the barriers on the outside of the corner. It was still remarkable that Ferrari’s mechanics were able to fix the car in time for FP2.
However, they had to oblige to Leclerc’s requests and look at the front of the car that he felt was bent. Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz reported from the track, “Ferrari are trying to unbend what Charles Leclerc thinks is a bent steering rack.”
“I’m sure it’s not that, but there is something wrong with that. They’re not much closer to getting the job done”, he added.
Despite these issues, Ferrari appear to be competitive during Friday’s running in Baku. Especially, Leclerc has had a good day on the timesheets as he has traded the fastest lap times with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, besides the two McLarens.
In FP2 as well, the #16 driver ended the session on top by only 0.006 seconds ahead of Perez after Ferrari sent him out again, having fixed the issue.
