George Russell and Anthony Davidson agree on why Charles Leclerc became a ‘sitting duck’ in Hungarian Grand Prix

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Charles Leclerc dropped out of the podium places in the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite starting from pole in his Ferrari.

After taking a shock pole position in his Ferrari, Leclerc led the way for most of the race before pitting for his final set of tyres 30 laps before the end.

This is where his performance started to unravel, with the Ferrari driver unable to respond to a one-stopping Lando Norris and quickly being passed by Oscar Piastri once he made his pit stop.

Leclerc went on a diatribe over team radio to his team about the “incredibly frustrating” situation and explained how his car had become “undrivable” in the final laps after being passed by George Russell for third.

When asked after the race about the problems, Leclerc remained cryptic, but said that he was given an explanation by the team when he got out of the car. Russell also provided his theory that contradicted what Leclerc said, which Anthony Davidson has unpicked when speaking on Sky Sports F1 (03/08 4:38pm).

Anthony Davidson agrees with George Russell’s theory on Charles Leclerc problems

Russell suspected that Ferrari was “close to being illegal” with Leclerc’s car when speaking to Sky Sports F1, and thought they were using lower engine modes to help combat plank wear.

Davidson looked at a few key moments and agreed that there was something awry with Leclerc’s car during the Hungarian GP.

“Straight away, off the line, I’m watching plank wear potential on the Ferrari. There is a lot of dust and sparks getting thrown up, even at moderate speed, before Turn 1. All the bumps going up towards Turn 4, and his car is sparking a lot. You can do a lot of damage at the end of the race,” said Davidson.

“When they came into the final pit stop and Ferrari was worried about the car being too low and therefore the plank wear being too high, then when the next set of tyres go on, if they have boosted the pressure inside those, that plays havoc with your grip. It’s a good case study and analysis from Mercedes and George himself.

“It’s funny how the teams look at each other. I even mentioned it about how hard it was to overtake Leclerc because of how quick they were on the straight, and he was like a sitting duck. That was a real surprise to me and the other teams have seen the drop in speed throughout the race. So that set of tyres would’ve had a lot more unwanted pressure, which overheats the tyres more, and there goes your grip.”

Ferrari has faced issues with plank wear before

Ferrari have faced plank wear issues before in their car, having told their drivers to lift and coast at various races throughout the season and been disqualified at the Chinese GP.

A suspension upgrade for Ferrari at the recent Belgian GP was supposed to cure the problem, along with a new floor that was introduced at the race in Austria.

Lewis Hamilton cautioned that it would take a while before Ferrari would understand the new parts and the impact it would have on car setup.

Although Hamilton was able to salvage an eighth place in Spa Francorchamps, he left Hungary having only finished in 12th place.