Leclerc's confusion over Hamilton position swap explained · RaceFans

Charles Leclerc seemed put out during today’s sprint race qualifying session when Ferrari instructed him to let him team mate past.

“Swap the cars now?” Leclerc reacted in surprise after receiving the order to let Lewis Hamilton by from race engineer Bryan Bozzi.

“I’ll do it, but we’ve never done that,” he replied, adding, “and I’m a bit in the shit as well.”

However Ferrari appear to have given Leclerc the instruction during SQ2 not because of some new policy on how they co-ordinate their drivers, but in response to an unusual sequence of events.

Hamilton left the pits to start his SQ2 run with Leclerc behind him. The pair circulated in that order and began their first attempts to set a time.

Leclerc then made a mistake at turn six and aborted his attempt to set a time. Had he completed that lap he would have used the next lap to cool his tyres back down. Instead he asked race engineer Bryan Bozzi if he could cool his tyres on the current lap and then begin another attempt at a push lap:

Bozzi (to Leclerc)	It will be mode push before last corner. Leclerc runs wide at turn six and backs off
Bozzi	No one pushing behind.
Leclerc	‘Can we do a ‘push-cool-push’?
Bozzi	‘Yes, we can do a ‘push-cool-push’. So we push after this lap.

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Hamilton pressed on and completed his lap, though the eventual pole-winner did not set a particularly competitive time. He then began his cool-down lap. The two Ferrari drivers were now out of phase.

Adami (to Hamilton)	And P3. Norris did a 31.1
Bozzi	So Norris P1, 31.1. Hamilton mistake, 32.2.
Hamilton	Looked quite windy on that lap.
Adami	Understood. We are staying out.
Hamilton	‘Too fast out-lap?
Bozzi	And it will be charge off into last corner. Leclerc begins another push lap
Adami	‘Piastri pushing behind, 10 seconds. Out-lap was good for our metrics. Two tenths… one tenth, sorry, one tenth sector one to Lando. And Piastri pushing behind, six seconds.

Hamilton reported he was having difficulty cooling his tyres down. Ferrari told him not to pit, so he prepared to continue onto a second consecutive cool-down lap. Meanwhile Leclerc, now pushing, was catching him:

Adami	So, Charles has aborted, for info. Piastri two behind.
Hamilton	You said we’re staying out?
Adami	Yeah, prefer to stay out for traffic. Charles is pushing behind.
Hamilton	Very hard to get the temps down.
Adami	Copy, understood. Charles is pushing behind, 10 seconds.
Adami	And radio still open.
Adami	‘Charles pushing behind, four seconds. Charles approaching, watch your mirrors and cooling down on the straight. Reset your b-mig.

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Hamilton pulled over to let Leclerc by as they came out of the final corner. Leclerc passed him as they approached the line and backed off. With Hamilton starting his second cool-down lap, they were back in phase, but now Leclerc was running close in front of Hamilton.

As Hamilton pointed out, this created a problem for him. Running ahead can confer an advantage on a driver and teams usually rotate this privilege between drivers. Ferrari asked Hamilton if he wanted to run ahead, and he asked to:

Bozzi	And we go for a single cool, single cool.
Adami	What’s going on? Has the wind changed?
Hamilton	Charles is just ahead of me. Is he going the next lap, or…
Bozzi	The wind is gusty but not big change in terms of direction.
Adami	He is going again next lap. Behind phase also car behind, no pressure from behind.
Hamilton	Yeah, but I’ve not got a gap.
Adami	Do you want to swap cars, question?
Hamilton	Yeah, that’s where I’m supposed to be.

Leclerc was therefore surprised to get an instruction to swap places. As he was still struggling with his tyre temperatures, it added to his problems, though both drivers successfully proceeded to SQ3:

Bozzi	‘Diff mid plus one for turns one-two.
Leclerc	For everywhere I think it’s very, very tricky now.
Bozzi	And can we swap the cars please?
Leclerc	Swap the cars now?
Bozzi	Yes, please.
Leclerc	Yeah, I’ll do it, but we’ve never done that and I’m a bit in the shit as well, so… Leclerc lets Hamilton past at the exit of turn 10

Leclerc, however, is now under investigation for potentially driving too slowly during SQ2 and it remains to be seen whether Ferrari’s instruction contributed to that.

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