Why Leclerc saw room for improvement in Ferrari’s strategy after Piastri passed him to win · RaceFans
Charles Leclerc admitted he didn’t put up enough of a fight when Oscar Piastri attacked him for the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
However the Ferrari driver also felt the team’s strategy harmed his chances of keeping the McLaren driver behind.
Leclerc’s lead over Piastri was almost six seconds when the McLaren driver made his pit stop on lap 15. Ferrari brought the race leader in on the next lap and he rejoined the track 1.3 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver. If Ferrari were hoping Piastri would drop behind Sergio Perez when they pitted, they were to be disappointed, as Lando Norris delayed the Red Bull driver and Piastri came out in clear air.
While Leclerc brought his tyres in gradually, Piastri threw caution to the wind, and grabbed his chance to attack the Ferrari on lap 20. He squeezed through into the lead, and with that Leclerc’s fate was sealed.
“Today we lost the race based on two misjudgements,” Leclerc said afterwards. “Obviously the first one I explained earlier, the fact of not fighting Oscar more was a mistake from my side because then with the different configurations we were struggling to actually overtake back in the straight.
“The second one is we expected the undercut today to be a very difficult thing to do, just because we thought that the warm-up on the hard would be extremely difficult.”
Leclerc admitted he was surprised how quickly Piastri gained on him after his pit stop.
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“For some reason – I don’t really have the explanation yet because I haven’t gone into details, I just jumped out of the car – but we’ve got to look into how the gap went from six seconds to one and a half, because that is definitely not what we expected. And that is a lot.
“Even on a track where undercuts are big, it’s still four seconds and a half or four seconds – a lot of lap time loss. I don’t exactly know why and where we’ve lost this lap time, so this will be an analysis.
“But when we speak about that amount of lap time, I think it will be straightforward. And we’ll see very quickly whether they just had a much better warm up with the hard than us or whether we’ve lost it anywhere else.”
Had Ferrari seen the potential McLaren had to gain so much time on fresh tyres, Leclerc said they would definitely have pitted earlier and not waste the advantage they had built up over Piastri.
“Stop[ping], a lap earlier, I think that’s it, to try and keep the gap to Oscar behind and to not have that pressure when you warm up the tyres on a track like this,” he said. “It’s never the position you want to be in.
“But again, it’s always very easy to change things after the race. And today, Oscar and McLaren have done a better job than me and Ferrari. And they deserve to win.”
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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Rank | # | Driver | Team | Complete stop time (s) | Gap to best (s) | Stop no. | Lap no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 19.712 | 1 | 37 | |
| 2 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 19.954 | 0.242 | 1 | 12 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 20.045 | 0.333 | 1 | 11 |
| 4 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 20.073 | 0.361 | 1 | 11 |
| 5 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 20.181 | 0.469 | 1 | 15 |
| 6 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 20.214 | 0.502 | 2 | 22 |
| 7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 20.257 | 0.545 | 1 | 50 |
| 8 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 20.287 | 0.575 | 1 | 31 |
| 9 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 20.52 | 0.808 | 1 | 34 |
| 10 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams | 20.596 | 0.884 | 1 | 10 |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 20.63 | 0.918 | 1 | 13 |
| 12 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 20.634 | 0.922 | 1 | 49 |
| 13 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 20.671 | 0.959 | 1 | 16 |
| 14 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 20.725 | 1.013 | 2 | 49 |
| 15 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | 20.922 | 1.21 | 1 | 12 |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 21.123 | 1.411 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 21.145 | 1.433 | 1 | 12 |
| 18 | 50 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 21.276 | 1.564 | 1 | 14 |
| 19 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.289 | 1.577 | 1 | 12 |
| 20 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 21.483 | 1.771 | 1 | 17 |
| 21 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 21.617 | 1.905 | 1 | 15 |
| 22 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | 21.984 | 2.272 | 1 | 49 |
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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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