Leclerc in the dark over key Ferrari move: 'They had other plans in mind'

Charles Leclerc has denied he played a part in the decision to change race engineer following the Miami Grand Prix.

Ferrari announced an organisational restructure last week as it confirmed Xavier Marcos would no longer act as Leclerc's race engineer.

Instead, his role has been taken by Bryan Bozzi, who previously worked as Leclerc's performance engineer.

Despite such a major change occurring to Leclerc's entourage, the Monegasque driver is expecting no disruption to his on-track product.

“Obviously, it’s very tight in the front and everything makes a difference,” Leclerc told media including RacingNews365.

“However, the decision was made between the team and Xavi. They’ve had other plans in mind, I guess. It was communicated to me right after Miami.

“Having said that, Bryan, who will take the role of Xavi from now onwards, is a person I have been working with since I arrived in Ferrari.

“He’s always been my performance engineer, so he knows exactly how everything works. It’s not like I’m starting from zero and it’s going to be a complete adaptation.

“It’s been super smooth until now and I’m sure that it will continue that way and we will be at our 100% already from this weekend.”

No communication issue

A race engineer plays a crucial role during a race weekend as they are in constant communication with the driver during sessions, aiding them through matters ranging from managing car settings to navigating traffic.

Despite Leclerc often being heard voicing frustration over the team radio to his previous engineer, he denied there was a communication issue with Marcos.

“I think communication has always been a big thing since we worked with Xavi,” Leclerc said.

“We always try and communicate as much as possible. This is the way I work to try and have the best picture overall.

“As I said, I think we’ll focus on having the smoothest transition possible and then we’ll focus on the things that matter to us. I don’t think it was a particular problem in the past.”