Charles Leclerc addresses tense Belgian GP radio messages: “Pressure is high”

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc has addressed the tense radio messages with his race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, during the Belgian Grand Prix. 

The Monegasque driver exclaimed over the team radio, “Leave me alone, please,” after Bozzi informed him that Max Verstappen was 1.2 seconds behind. “I can have no information, then when he’s getting close, I have too much information. Keep it constant. Don’t worry,” he added.

Leclerc crossed the line to finish third at Spa-Francorchamps behind McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. 

“Max was behind the whole race within two seconds, so it’s never easy,” Leclerc explained in reaction to his third-place finish.

“I knew that the first part of the race was the trickiest one for us because we didn’t have the downforce that the McLaren or that Max had, as they compromised a little bit the qualifying to be better in the rain today. But luckily, it dried up pretty quickly, and then the pace was good.

“But still, Max was right behind the whole race. I’m pretty happy that we managed to keep that third place.”

Addressing the radio messages, the Ferrari driver added: “The pressure is high, especially in those conditions, because as soon as you are 10, 15 centimetres out the first… the right line, then it’s wet or greasy and then you can lose the line and do a very big mistake. So at one point, I just told Bryan to leave me alone.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

“But obviously, he’s trying to give me the most information. Sometimes I need them. Today I didn’t, and I let him know.”

Looking ahead to the Hungarian Grand Prix, which is set to take place next week, Leclerc is eager to get more out of the upgrades that the team introduced for the sprint race weekend. 

“I hope so. I mean, honestly, we’ve had what we expected with this upgrade and that’s really positive. We need to keep learning about how to maximise this new upgrade.

“It’s still pretty new, but it’s a good first weekend and I’m happy that we are on the podium to thank the whole team back in Maranello. But we keep pushing and hopefully we’ll put a bit more pressure on the McLarens [soon].”