– Charles Leclerc was left with mixed feelings after qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. Although the Ferrari driver set his SF-26 to fifth on the grid with a lap time of 1:44.893 minutes, he believed that significantly more was possible.
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It was precisely an apparent yellow flag in the final corners of his last Q3 attempt that threw the Monegasque out of rhythm. This had a double impact: since Lando Norris, who qualified third, received a grid penalty, Leclerc could have started the race not from fourth but even from third place.
Leclerc: “I thought there was a yellow flag on the track”
The decisive moment was a scene in the Bus Stop chicane. There, Leclerc noticed out of the corner of his eye a marshal waving a yellow flag. However, this was not for the track itself but for Isack Hadjar, who was slowly driving through the pit lane to the FIA scales.
“I was very satisfied with my first lap in Q3,” Leclerc reports. “On the second lap, I then thought there was a yellow flag in the last two corners. There was a marshal at the pit entry waving a yellow flag.”
“Apparently, it was meant for Isack and not for the track. I roughly knew what was going on, but the marshal was standing pretty much in the middle of my field of vision. That’s why I lifted off a bit.” According to his own assessment, this brief lift cost him a better starting position.
“At that moment, I was maybe three or four hundredths ahead of my first lap. That probably would have been enough to get ahead of George. But there wasn’t much more in the car today anyway.”
The data also supports that Leclerc was on his way to an improvement. According to telemetry, he was 0.068 seconds under his best time from the first Q3 run until the last chicane. In the end, however, he crossed the finish line 0.028 seconds slower. The time loss in the last section of the track was therefore probably about a tenth of a second—enough to push George Russell back from fourth place.
Ferrari sees at least fourth place as realistic
Team principal Frederic Vasseur also did not hide his opinion. While he does not question that the yellow flag was waved according to the rules, he considers the position of the marshal to be problematic.
“Hadjar was in the pit lane in parc fermé,” explains Vasseur. “That’s why the yellow flag was shown at the pit entry. The problem is: the pit entry is right next to the track.”
Leclerc therefore had to react inevitably. “Charles had to lift briefly. That’s just the rule. It wasn’t half a second, but if the driver in front of you is only three hundredths faster, that naturally becomes difficult.”
When asked what position would have been possible without this incident, Vasseur initially replies dryly: “Ahead of Russell—definitely.” And when pressed further, he adds: “I don’t have a crystal ball. But at least one position would have been possible. More importantly now is that we understand our performance and find out how we can get faster.”
Chandhok: “I can absolutely understand Leclerc”
Sky expert Karun Chandhok also shows great understanding for Leclerc’s reaction. In his TV analysis, the former Formula 1 driver explained using onboard footage why the Ferrari driver practically could not have acted otherwise.
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“If you watch it in slow motion, the yellow flag is exactly in his field of vision,” Chandhok explains. “As a driver, you immediately lift off.”
Additionally, drivers have been particularly sensitized to yellow flags after recent discussions. “He immediately wonders what happened in the last corner. But in fact, Hadjar was on the right in the pit lane, slowly driving to the scales.”
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The real problem was the position of the marshal. “The marshal stands exactly where Charles is looking. That’s why he aborted the attempt or lifted off. He probably lost a tenth of a second because of that. That would have been enough to be one place further forward and effectively take third on the grid.”
One could argue that Leclerc should have looked at the displays on the steering wheel, but Chandhok considers that unrealistic. “At that moment, a driver focuses solely on the track and his qualifying lap. Nobody looks at the display.”
His conclusion is therefore clear: “I absolutely understand his frustration. This is something FIA and drivers need to discuss. Probably this marshal should no longer stand directly in the drivers’ line of sight in the future.”
Tough weekend with technical problem
Regardless of the incident, Leclerc looks back on an overall complicated weekend. Ferrari struggled before qualifying with a problem on the power unit that has not been further explained. “The weekend was difficult for other reasons,” reveals the Ferrari driver.
“We had something that we couldn’t explain at first. Because of that, I constantly lost four to five tenths on the straights.” Ferrari apparently found the cause just in time before qualifying. “Before qualifying, we discovered and changed something. After that, the performance corresponded much more to our expectations.”
The basic driving feeling was good from the start anyway. “So it’s of course a shame that this last lap was affected by the misunderstanding with the yellow flag.”
Later, Leclerc clarified that it was not an aerodynamic problem. “No, it was a problem with the power unit. We recognized and changed that.”
Looking ahead: slipstream could be decisive
For the race, Leclerc now focuses on a good start and slipstream battles on the long straights of Spa-Francorchamps. “The slipstream is extremely strong on this track,” he explains.
“I just hope we get a good slipstream because we are still missing a few km/h in top speed compared to some competitors.”
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