Ferrari are ‘brainwashing’ Charles Leclerc as mysterious pattern emerges in his post-race interviews

Follow us on Google Discover

Charles Leclerc refused to take any positives from last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, even though he bagged a surprise pole position. It was the first time Leclerc has set the pace in qualifying since Azerbaijan last autumn.

And during the first stint, it looked as if he might convert that pole to victory. Leclerc established a comfortable buffer over second-place Oscar Piastri in the rapid McLaren.

But his race progressively unravelled thereafter. Leclerc ended up dropping out of the podium positions altogether and finishing over 40 seconds behind victor Lando Norris.

Leclerc raged at Ferrari over the radio during the race, telling them ‘you have to listen to me’ and suggesting that they had taken the management of a mystery car issue into their own hands. He described the situation as ‘incredibly frustrating’.

Charles Leclerc keeps doing the ‘criticise-and-retract routine’ at Ferrari

Speaking after the race, Leclerc struck a much more measured tone. He said his impression in the cockpit was ‘wrong’ and that the problem in question was beyond Ferrari’s control.

“In the car obviously I had no idea what was going on,” he explained. “I mean I had an idea, but it was a wrong idea because I thought it was something that was in our control.

“Unfortunately we had an issue on the chassis, so I don’t have much to add on that. It’s just extremely frustrating when you are fighting for a win and when we had the pace that we had at the beginning of the race, and we lose absolutely everything later on, it’s very frustrating.”

On the Auto Motor und Sport YouTube channel, journalist Michael Schmidt suggested that Ferrari had effectively ‘brainwashed’ their driver before he’d faced the media. That prevented him from being totally ‘honest’.

“I think there was a bit of brainwashing going on between [Leclerc getting out of] the car and these press conferences and TV interviews,” said Schmidt. “He obviously says in the car what he thinks and what his feeling is. I think that was more honest than what he said afterwards.”

ESPN journalist Nate Saunders has observed that Leclerc keeps adopting the ‘criticise-and-retract routine’. There is a ‘feeling’ that he may be too much of a ‘nice guy’ and needs to be harder on the team to drive them forward.

How Toto Wolff reacted to Charles Leclerc’s penalised move on George Russell

During the Belgian GP, Leclerc told engineer Bryan Bozzi to ‘leave me alone’ because he was getting ‘too much information’. After the race, he attributed his comments to the ‘high pressure’ of his battle with Max Verstappen.

The Monegasque has certainly earned the right to criticise Ferrari, having raced for the team since 2019. He’s scored five podiums this year in a car that’s been difficult to drive, keeping the Scuderia second in the standings.

Teammate Lewis Hamilton has been sending Ferrari ‘documents’ of feedback trying to change their processes for 2026. Leclerc has been less outspoken about the need for fundamental change.

Frustration may have got the better of him during the Hungarian GP as his overly aggressive defensive manoeuvre against George Russell landed him a five-second penalty and a point on his superlicence.

Toto Wolff called Leclerc’s move ‘unnecessary’ and said the penalty was ‘pointless’ given the large gap to Fernando Alonso behind. The Ferrari driver’s pole conversion rate is now just 18.5%, but this may be a testament to his exceptional qualifying performances.