“No, no. We were ready to pit”– Charles Leclerc strongly denies suggestions of Ferrari bluffing in Saudi Arabia

Tanish Chachra | 29/03/2022
"No, no. We were ready to pit"– Charles Leclerc strongly denies suggestions of Ferrari bluffing in Saudi Arabia

Charles Leclerc says that no way Ferrari was bluffing in Saudi Arabia as their plan forced Sergio Perez to pit, and he lost his lead.

Red Bull and Ferrari were vying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after the two teams took the spots in the front two rows. The whole race was about strategy, as both sides had their own advantages and disadvantages.

Red Bull was keeping tabs on Ferrari’s tyre strategy, and at one stage, Charles Leclerc was ready to pit. But Red Bull tried to improvise on that and told Perez to pit.

However, seeing Perez pit, Leclerc didn’t go to the pitlane and continued the race. And in the very next lap, Nicholas Latifi crashed, which brought out the safety car.

At this stage, Leclerc changed his tyres and gained the lead in the race. On the other hand, Perez dropped to P4, which not only cost him his win but a podium too.

Asked whether this was a bluff by Ferrari to force Red Bull to make a panic call. Leclerc denied that this was ever thought, and he would have pitted if Perez hadn’t gone inside.

“No, no. We were ready to pit,” he told the media. “I mean, yes, we basically went for the opposite to Checo [Perez] in front, and he boxed that lap, so yeah, I think we did the right choice.”

Also read: Helmut Marko reveals what change Red Bull is making to its car to tackle the might of Ferrari

Charles Leclerc happy with his tyres in Jeddah

Leclerc further talks about how reliable his tyres were throughout the race. H admits that it was difficult chasing Perez, and he thought tyres might have taken a toll. But, in reality, they took him till the last mile.

“I think we did a great job by managing those Mediums, because it wasn’t easy following Checo,” he explained. “But, towards the end, we actually had quite a good pace on those Mediums.”

In the end, Leclerc couldn’t match the pace of Max Verstappen and lost his lead against him. Though, the Dutchman had to go through a tiring battle to displace his rival from his spot.

Also read: Ferrari boss gives an idea about how battle between Ferrari and Red Bull will develop

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Charles Leclerc ferrari Max Verstappen Red Bull Sergo Perez

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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