Peter Windsor critical of ‘odd’ Ferrari radio message Charles Leclerc received in Baku

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Charles Leclerc had to chase down Oscar Piastri in the closing stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, having lost the lead 20 laps into the race.

The thrilling battle for the lead took shape after Charles Leclerc conserved his tyres shortly after Oscar Piastri made the overtake that Karun Chandhok said had ‘tremendous confidence’ at Turn 1.

As he piled the pressure on the 23-year-old during the race’s final laps, Leclerc received encouragement from his engineer Bryan Bozzi, who told the Monogasque that he was doing a “good job” as he stayed within a second of Piastri.

Ferrari even attempted to thwart Piastri’s strategy by calling on Leclerc to “box opposite McLaren” although neither team decided to pit. Leclerc ultimately fell short when he took too much life out of his tyres in the closing stages of the race, which caused him to fall into the clutches of Sergio Perez.

Perez tried to attack him at Turn 1 but was put on the back foot, allowing Carlos Sainz to make a move at Turn 3. The pair eventually collided, offering Leclerc some respite on the race’s penultimate lap.

Discussing his race on the Cameron Cc podcast, Peter Windsor explained why he felt the radio messages from his engineer were unnecessary and contributed to his problems.

Charles Leclerc’s engineer messages made tyres worse

Leclerc was saving his tyres early in his second stint due to the high degradation and how easy it was to overheat the surface of the rubber around the Baku street circuit.

Windsor felt that Ferrari should have given him more relevant information to his tyres instead of offering encouragement to go faster, and therefore compounding the problem.

“I thought it was a bit odd from the Ferrari pit wall, all this ‘Don’t give up Charles’ and ‘This is a great fight’ – I don’t think thats what he needed to hear,” said Windsor.

“I think he needed them to say ‘Just relax, let the tyre temperatures be what they are, if they are getting hot just back off a bit’ and I think to some extent that did the damage because his tyres went off significantly quicker than Piastri’s.”

Charles Leclerc admits to ‘mistake’ that cost him Azerbaijan victory

After the race, Leclerc admitted that his lack of defence was the main ‘mistake’ he made when battling Piastri for the lead of the race.

The McLaren driver had to make the overtake work several meters before the first corner, but Leclerc did not cover his line when entering the apex.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

It was a shame that Leclerc lost pace on the hard tyres as he was going for his second win a row, having also won the race at Monza in front of the Italian Tifosi.

Leclerc’s strong result still enabled Ferrari to close the gap on Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship to just 31 points heading into the final seven races.