During the Hungarian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc had a tense conversation with his race engineer over the team radio. After a slow first pit stop, Leclerc found himself behind his teammate Carlos Sainz and requested to be put on an offset strategy. However, his race engineer, Xavier Padros, responded vaguely, saying they were discussing it at the end of the race, which seemed to frustrate Leclerc.
After the race, Leclerc explained that there were issues with the team’s radio, with one out of four words being misunderstood by his engineer. He clarified that his tone of voice may have sounded aggressive due to the radio problems and the need to make himself heard. Leclerc wanted to ensure that his request for an aggressive strategy early in the race was understood correctly, as opposed to an aggressive strategy later on.
Leclerc also mentioned that the team has been experiencing radio issues for several races and they need to address and fix this problem. Despite his radio woes, Leclerc managed to finish sixth on track, but a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane resulted in him being demoted to seventh place.
