Team radio communication at Ferrari was once more a talking point during Sprint qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix.
That was after Leclerc was left perplexed by being told to “swap” position on the track with Hamilton, a move which he told his team would leave him “in the sh*t”.
Ferrari radio: Fair Lewis Hamilton call given to Leclerc?
With Leclerc and Hamilton on an outlap ahead of their final SQ2 push, Leclerc was told: “Can we swap the cars, please.”
The Monegasque came back with: “Swap the cars now?” After that was confirmed, he added: “Yeah, I’ll do it, but we’ve never done that, and I’m a bit in the sh*t as well.”
Leclerc would follow the instruction and let Hamilton through, and while both drivers made the SQ3 cut, Leclerc lapped almost two-tenths slower than his team-mate.
Hamilton would go on to claim a first pole in Ferrari colours, as he prepares to lead the grid away for the Chinese GP Sprint race, with former title rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, for company on the front row.
And speaking after Sprint qualifying – with Leclerc forced to settle for P4 on the grid – he admitted that Hamilton had the pace advantage over him.
“I struggled on my side of the garage,” said Leclerc. “From the beginning, I felt like I was a step back compared to Lewis, and Lewis was just faster today.
“Struggled a lot in Turn 1, 2, 3, which was more or less the same struggles I had last year, so that’s a bit of a shame.
“But apart from that, everything was quite tight. So obviously, it’s a shame we start P4.
“But Lewis is on the ball, and hopefully we can have a good race together tomorrow.”
After a challenging Ferrari debut in Melbourne for Hamilton, the Chinese GP so far has represented a major step in the right direction.
And having taken the P1 spot on the Sprint grid, Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok says this goes a long way to “justify” Hamilton’s blockbuster move from Mercedes to Ferrari, and shows “why Ferrari signed Lewis Hamilton”.
“He would have liked to have had a few more weekends without Lewis being the fly in his ointment,” said Chandhok on Leclerc.
“But listen, that’s why Ferrari signed Lewis Hamilton. They signed him for all the star quality, but they also, most importantly, signed him to be delivering on track.
“And I think for Charles, it’s a great challenge. Carlos [Sainz] was a great challenge, but Lewis, it’s raising the bar again.
“We didn’t get that fairytale moment in Melbourne of Lewis starting his Ferrari life at the top. We only had to wait six days to see this.
“But what a story. I mean, I think this is going to get people tuned in for tomorrow.
“It’s justified his move in some ways, right? He’s gone in there, he’s got it comfortable, but he’s reenergised, I think that’s the thing we’ve all talked about, he looks reenergised, reinvigorated, remotivated, but mostly importantly, he’s delivered on the timesheets today.”
