Ferrari have had a disastrous start to the 2023 season as they have struggled to make it even to the podium so far. Barring Charles Leclerc’s third-place finish in Azerbaijan and a second-place finish in Austria, the Prancing Horse have failed to register a top-three finish in the other nine races this year. And consequently of Ferrari’s struggles, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris took it as an opportunity to mock the treatment the Monegasque driver has been receiving at the team.
This is because Ferrari for the longest of times have been infamous for the radio messages they have given to their drivers. For example, on several occasions, Ferrari’s race engineers have seemingly discussed puzzling strategies with their drivers by just spewing letters.
And that is not it, as the engineers on some occasions have also turned to their drivers for advice mid race. As a result of the same, Verstappen and Norris took it as the perfect opportunity to mock Leclerc’s race engineer, Xavi, when asked about their tire strategies during the recently concluded Hungarian GP.
Plan F, Copy…: Max Verstappen has a laugh at Charles Leclerc’s expense
During the press conference, Lando Norris was asked to explain his race strategy. Just as he began doing so by stating, “My Plan A and Plan C 20? Master,” Max Verstappen interrupted him. The Briton then asked the Red Bull driver to answer the question for him, to which the 25-year-old hilariously replied by imitating Charles Leclerc’s engineer, “Plan F?”
lando: my plan a, plan c..
max: plan F! copy!!!! 😁race engineer max pic.twitter.com/Us49qmlVkv
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) July 24, 2023
On hearing the same, Norris acknowledged that there was a Plan F in there as well. However, the banter just did not end there, as Verstappen imitated Leclerc’s engineer once again by replying, “Copy“. Once the banter was over, Norris finally gave his thoughts about McLaren’s strategy.
The Briton explained that while there was some sort of confusion about the strategy that would work best for them, he believes that it all worked out in the end. And when it comes to Ferrari, they once again had a disappointing race.
Charles Leclerc has often expressed his frustrations with Xavi
Since Ferrari has had a disappointing 2023 season, frustrations have been growing inside their camp. The same can be seen in the radio exchanges the drivers have with their engineers.
And the Hungarian Grand Prix once again witnessed a similar situation when Charles Leclerc vented out his frustrations with Xavi. Since Ferrari cost the Monegasque because of a slow pit stop, the 25-year-old was far from happy and wanted his team to be on their toes for the rest of the race.
Hence, when Xavi told him that the team were going to check their strategy at the end, a fuming Leclerc replied (as quoted by planetf1.com), “What do you mean at the end?” On hearing Leclerc’s fiery reply, Xavi responded, “We are on it“.
Hence, now for the sake of Ferrari and Leclerc, fans will hope that the team can recover from what has been a disastrous start.
