Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports Germany analyst Ralf Schumacher has confronted theories that Ferrari made tyre pressure adjustments during the Hungarian Grand Prix to avoid excessive plank wear.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc snatched a surprise pole position ahead of the McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the Hungaroring. But after retaining his lead at the start of the race, a change to the car saw an abrupt drop in performance. The Monegasque driver ultimately crossed the line in fourth.
Leclerc fumed over the team radio, stating, “This is so incredibly frustrating. We’ve lost all competitiveness. You just have to listen to me, I would have found a different way of managing those issues. Now it’s just undriveable, undriveable! It’s a miracle if we finish on the podium.”
The messages led many to believe that the team could have taken action during a pitstop to avoid excessive plank wear, which would have resulted in a disqualification. But Schumacher has branded those claims as “absurd”.
“This tyre pressure theory? Absurd,” he explained during the Backstage Boxengasse podcast. “The tyre would react much faster. How can you even measure that? It’s all down to dynamics. You’d need to pump in so much air to make a visible ride height difference – and the tyres would overheat after just three-four laps.
“That’s what we know from qualifying. And even then you are not riding higher. So no. And if the car was fast at the start with full fuel, it would’ve been lower anyway – meaning it’s scraping the floor even more. This I don’t think is possible.”
Schumacher instead pointed to the hard tyres being an issue for the Maranello outfit.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“I think Ferrari’s problem was that they used the hard tyre then for the first time. And they have a new rear axle. I think something happened which they hadn’t expected. Because he was too slow from the moment he switched to the hard. I think there’s the issue.
“He was very frustrated, of course. So this is what I think. I don’t believe fuel was an issue. Because if so, Fred Vasseur would have said something, because he is an open kind of guy. I believe they didn’t fully understand what went wrong. It may be similar to Red Bull where Max Verstappen also had issues with the hards.
“I think the biggest issue was that Ferrari didn’t have any data from the latest developments. You need to simulate with data you assume to be correct from the simulator. This doesn’t always work out.
“In Hungary, there also was the weather situation with a lot of wind and changing winds. So the rear was nervous, the car slid more, the tyres overheated. McLaren was perfectly balanced – Ferrari wasn’t. Leclerc had to fight the car, which destroyed the tyres. And once that happened, it was game over. This is what I think because they didn’t test and didn’t properly understand the new package.”
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