Charles Leclerc disagrees with Lewis Hamilton and says that the orange smoke covering the tracks at the Austrian GP was not bad.
Charles Leclerc claimed P1 at the Austrian GP amid the raging Red Bull and Max Verstappen fans who had covered the tracks with orange flares in the opening lap.
Many drivers voiced their concerns about the controversial use of flares by fans. The thick cloud of smoke had filled the air and bellowed the track at Turn 7 causing problems in visibility for the driver.
The same happened at Turn 6 at the end of the race. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said that he couldn’t see due to the orange flares.
“Just on the formation lap, you couldn’t see the apex of Turn 7, and at the end of the race, you couldn’t see anything through Turn 6.”
“So, fortunately, it wasn’t necessarily the case during the race, but maybe they should just save them more for the end?
“I can’t believe they’re really good environmentally either,” questioned the seven-time World Champion.
Meanwhile, Verstappen was less concerned with the flaring as it was being done for him only. However, the Dutchman said that he would prefer the flares in the grandstands, not on the track.
“I saw one flare, they threw it onto the track or onto the grass,” the reigning World Champion revealed.
“I think that’s the only thing they shouldn’t do, as long as you keep it in the grandstands.”
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Charles Leclerc says it was nothing too bad
The Monegasque who won the race at the Austrian Grand Prix does not agree with Hamilton. While he did feel that the flaring was quite too much, Leclerc said that it was nothing too bad.
Verstappen also said that it does not stay on the track throughout the race, the wind blows it over so he feels that it was okay.
I know it was more than noticeable on TV but the crowd let off that many orange flares I didn’t even see the start lmao #F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/tCo0GzC0qv
— JSR 🇳🇴🇬🇧🇺🇦 (@JSRSnakez) July 11, 2022
Leclerc said, “The formation lap was quite a lot but yeah, but nothing too bad. You could still see so it was fine.”
Even fans available at the Grand Prix complained about the excessive amount of flares.
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