Mercedes tried every way to trick Leclerc, even using radio tricks, but the Monegasque didn’t fall for it. Here are his words!
The Suzuka GP highlighted Leclerc’s talent once again, especially in wheel-to-wheel combat. After the fantastic overtakes on Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and the subsequent defense against the Mercedes driver himself, Toto Wolff and his team tried every possible way to beat the Monegasque.
Mercedes’ number 63 attempted to overtake Ferrari’s number 16 for 15 laps, with the latter managing to defend his precious podium in every way possible.
Read also: EDITORIAL – Charles Leclerc, the true Number 1 of F1 and Ferrari
Russell and his race engineer looked for ways to overtake Leclerc, and not just on the track. If a few years ago being fast and brave was enough to win, now in Formula 1 everything counts: Mercedes tried to overtake the Ferrari… by deceiving it! The Briton’s race engineer began suggesting places to deploy all the energy, only to do the exact opposite. These were Leclerc’s words regarding this in the FIA Press Conference:
“I don’t know. I mean, it was quite tight at some points – Leclerc began – and they were also being quite cheeky because his engineer was telling him things on the radio. My engineer was telling me what his engineer was telling on the radio, but he was doing then the opposite and that put me under quite a bit of pressure. At one point I think they told me, ‘Oh, he’s being told to use everything in the back straight,’ or vice versa, or maybe in the main straight, and then for four laps in a row he was doing exactly the opposite of that.”
Charles then continued: “I understood it pretty quickly and I could defend. But at one point I got surprised in the last corner and yes, but it was quite a fun race. Unfortunately, a little bit unlucky for us because of the Safety Car at the wrong moment. I don’t think it would have changed significantly our race, but it made it a little bit more difficult for our second stint for sure.”
Photos: Scuderia Ferrari HP
