Ferrari throw away Monaco Grand Prix win with botched strategy call

If there is one team which knows how to nuke its own hopes of winning a grand prix it is Ferrari. Pair that with arguably F1's unluckiest man in Charles Leclerc and you have a recipe for catastrophe.

It's even worse for Leclerc at Monaco, who heading into his home race in 2022 was already scarred from the previous season when victory looked on the cards after stunning Red Bull and Mercedes to stick his car on pole.

However a crash in qualifying meant that an undetected issue was found as Leclerc left the pits to drive to the grid on race day, resulting in the diagnosis of a cracked driveshaft hub that couldn't be fixed in time for the grand prix, leaving the pole sitter out of the race before it had even stated. Only Ferrari, only Leclerc.

A year later and Leclerc was on pole again for the Monaco Grand Prix. Despite a pre-race downpour and the drivers starting the race on the wet tyre, Leclerc led comfortably in the opening stages before pitting for intermediate tyres on lap 18, with the second-placed Ferrari Carlos Sainz gambling on staying out.

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Ferrari ruin Leclerc's race

Three laps later Sainz pitted for smooth slicks, but Ferrari also called in Leclerc again for his own set. However, as Charles entered the pits, the Ferrari team urgently called him over the radio to 'stay out! stay out! stay out!' but of course they were too late.

This resulted in Leclerc being double stacked behind Sainz, losing precious seconds. As Leclerc left the pits he looked calm enough but team radio proved otherwise with a series of his expletive messages enough to make the hardest of fans blush relayed before the Monegasque finished with a furious 'what are you doing?'

There wasn't a clear answer from Ferrari, but there was a collective response from anyone watching. The team was costing him the race.

Leclerc emerged fourth behind Sainz, with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen leading on the intermediate tyres. Salt was about to be applied to the Ferrari wounds.

Red Bull double stacked Perez and Verstappen, with Perez emerging still leading the race and Verstappen coming out third just in front of Leclerc's Ferrari.

And that's how it stayed until the end of the race with the top four unable to be separated, yet unable to find an opportunity to pass, leaving Perez to win from Sainz and Verstappen, with Leclerc missing out on the podium when he should have been celebrating a famous victory.

Monaco Grand Prix Results

Leclerc reacts to Monaco misery

Leclerc of course was seething in the car telling his team on the cool down lap: “No words - the season is long but we cannot do that,” and still seething after to the media.

"It was a freaking disaster today," he said. "The win was clearly in our hands: we had the performance, we had everything. I just don’t really understand the call that I had and I need explanations for now.

“I couldn’t do much, I was called just before the last corner, so I couldn’t react or ask for any information, but that was clearly the wrong choice… We need to get better. I used my in-between time [in the car] just to calm myself down because as you may have seen I was pretty angry."

Leclerc of course finally got his home Monaco win in 2024 to give the story a happy ending, but after a poor Canadian Grand Prix last time out he must bounce back in Monaco once more to see off the threat of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Given his relatively poor luck around Monte Carlo, this is certainly one weekend he hopes he can avoid any more Ferrari friendly fire.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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