Leclerc furious not only about his retirement: he waits ‘in line’ behind the penalized Hamilton

A Sunday to forget The home GP was truly a Sunday to forget for Charles Leclerc, who once again ‘suffered’ the curse of Monaco which he seemed to have finally broken in 2024. As is well known, the Ferrari driver was forced to retire on lap 64 after hitting the wall when restarting behind the Safety Car, according to him due to the braking difficulties which have been persecuting him for several GPs. But the reasons for the Monegasque to be angry had already arrived a few laps earlier, when the security car entered. Leclerc was in third place at the time, behind Lewis Hamilton, who however had received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The red pit wall, however, decided to have both SF-26s stop in the pits to change tires on the same lap, thus forcing Leclerc to wait in line not only for Hamilton’s normal stop, but also for the seven-time world champion to serve his penalty, thus preventing Leclerc from attempting to overtake his penalized garage partner. A decision which – as happened in 2022 when Leclerc was made to wait in the pit lane behind Sainz – understandably sent the red #16 into a rage. Below we report the heated exchange between Leclerc and his race engineer Bryan Bozzi during those delicate phases. Anger on the radio Bozzi: “Safety car mode. Don’t reach the Safety Car after Charles, we want to wait.”
Leclerc: “What do I do?”.
Bozzi: “Box, box, box”.
Leclerc: “But what…”.
Bozzi: “We have to wait”.
Leclerc: “But why the hell are we making the pit stop? Why don’t we stay on the track?” Leclerc: “I don’t even know why I’m listening. Honestly, at this point… I know we have to improve, but damn. Why didn’t you leave me out? I don’t even understand your explanation.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-06-08 16:21:00