Leclerc reveals root cause behind heated radio message

Charles Leclerc has revealed a faulty part was behind his steering issues that led to a heated radio message during Friday practice in Baku.

Leclerc described his Ferrari F1 car as “bent” as he struggled with the steering in the opening minutes of the second practice session.

Ferrari stated it saw nothing amiss on the data before Leclerc pitted while angrily stating it was “impossible” that it could not see the problem.

The issue came just a couple of hours after Leclerc crashed his car in the first practice session - but asserted the FP2 issue was not linked to his hit with the barrier.

“The crash, there’s not much to go into,” Leclerc said. “I broke a little bit too much on the right where the track was still dirty.

“I locked up and it was too late, so I went into the wall. That wasn’t great to start the weekend but I still had a lot of confidence in the car. So there wasn’t much problem.

“When we started FP2 there was an actual problem with the car that we saw later on once I stopped. We changed that particular part. It was nothing to do with the crash before so the mechanics have done a really good job.

“We had a problem with one new part we put on the car, that was giving me a very strange feeling with the steering wheel. We changed that, went again and it was fine.”

Leclerc ended the FP2 session in first place, setting his best lap time in the final 15 minutes of the outing.

“We still have to work on the car, there’s plenty to do to improve,” Leclerc added. 

“There’s the driving to improve quite a bit. But again, we are fast - that’s a good sign.”