The last thing a Formula 1 team needs is its drivers colliding and Charles Leclerc suffered damage when he hit Lewis Hamilton on lap one of the Chinese Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc suffered damage on lap one of the Chinese Grand Prix after contact with his team-mate. He clipped the back of Lewis Hamilton’s car at the first corner as he tried to overtake up the inside, causing a headache for Ferrari.
The unspoken rule for all Formula 1 drivers is to not collide with your team-mate. But the Ferrari paid broke that when Leclerc’s front wing clipped the back right corner of Hamilton’s car, causing the endplate of the wing to come loose and, eventually, fall off.
The contact was not enough for cause either car to spin, however it clearly damaged Leclerc’s car. Max Verstappen was soon on the radio to report the damage to the Ferrari, clearly hoping the stewards might intervene and tell the Monegasque to stop for safety reasons.
They did not, as that endplate soon detached and there was no longer any danger of flying debris coming off the car at high speed. But there was certainly danger of Leclerc’s race unravelling due to the effect of the damage to his car.
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His race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, soon came onto the radio to warn his driver of the consequences. He told Leclerc that he was losing “between 20 and 30 points” of downforce as a result of the missing piece of his front wing.
Bozzi asked his driver whether he felt he could stay out and push through regardless and the Monegasque confirmed that he felt he could. And he proved it initially by staying close to the back of Hamilton despite being compromised by that front wing damage.
The Brit was initially clueless as to exactly what had happened. He reported to his race engineer Riccardo Adami that he had been hit, but said that he wasn’t sure who it was. Adami’s response, if there was one, was not broadcast on the world feed, suggesting he may have chosen to avoid telling Hamilton that he had been hit by his own team-mate.
After 10 laps, Leclerc jumped back onto the radio to tell his team that he wanted to stick with his original strategy plan if he continued to not be hampered too much by the damage. But not long after he reported that he felt he was losing time to Hamilton in front.
He pitted on lap 16 of the race, but there was no new front wing forthcoming – just new tyres. Between himself and his race engineer, they had clearly decided that the extra time it would have taken to replace the damaged part was not worth spending given the little impact it seemed to be having on his pace.
In fact, Hamilton was the one who seemed to be struggling more. On lap 20, the Brit reported over the radio that he was lacking pace after the first set of pit stops and, soon, the order came for them to swap position. He initially resisted as he wanted to clear the cars ahead that were yet to pit and, once they did, he complied with the instruction.
