Persistent braking problems ended Charles Leclerc’s hopes of finishing on the podium in the first race of 2023.
The Ferrari driver started second but slipped back to fifth at one stage as he grappled with a 100C different in temperature between his front brake discs.
Team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr briefly reported similar problems during his first stint, but wasn’t affected by them as seriously as Leclerc was.
By the end of the race, Leclerc had adjusted to the problem well enough that he was able to pass George Russell for fourth place. The Mercedes driver had problems of his own due to his power unit overheating.
But at one point Leclerc’s problems grew so severe he warned his team the car’s handling was “dangerous”.
Leclerc’s 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix radio messages
The Ferrari driver was already having difficulty with his brakes when Russell overtook him soon after the start of Saturday’s race. This is a selection of his exchanges with race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros, omitting repetitive messages such as gaps to other drivers and their lap times:
| Lap: 2/57 LEC: 1’36.862 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | DRS enabled. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Russell behind with DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Russell DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 3/57 LEC: 1’38.062 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Russell DRS. Gap to him 0.8. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | And Russell DRS again. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Perez behind with DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 4/57 LEC: 1’37.752 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Perez DRS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Yeah, it’s okay. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Copy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leclerc made few comments about his braking problem during the first stint. It appears he suspected the problem lay with his tyres. On lap seven he locked up at turn 10, ran wide and Perez pounced, taking third place from him.
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| Lap: 5/57 LEC: 1’38.131 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | So behind we have Perez with DRS and also Sainz with DRS behind Perez. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Track limits, Russell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Copy on track limits for Russell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Really weird the balance, really oversteering. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Understood. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 6/57 LEC: 1’37.782 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | And switch position. Yellow. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leclerc | Track limits for Russell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 7/57 LEC: 1’38.957 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | And first strike for track limits, turn ten. And SOC [state of charge] six when you can. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 8/57 LEC: 1’38.136 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marcos Padros | Overall, good job on tyre management. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Having put Leclerc on soft tyres at the start, Ferrari planned to switch him on to the hard tyres early on. Despite Sainz passing him on lap 11, Ferrari stuck to their plan to pit Leclerc first.
| Lap: 9/57 LEC:… |
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