Nov.23 (GMM) Ferrari’s season lurched deeper into open crisis in Las Vegas as Charles Leclerc unleashed one of the most brutal radio outbursts of his career – the same week chairman John Elkann told his drivers to “talk less”.
After qualifying only ninth, Leclerc exploded on the radio with: “My God – f*ing embarrassing.”
And once out of the car, he tore into Ferrari’s long-standing wet-weather weakness. “We’ve had this problem for seven years,” he said.
“It’s so frustrating because it was probably my biggest strength in the junior categories. We have Lewis, and before that Carlos, who came from other teams and could tell us what the other cars are like – but somehow we still don’t make progress.”
Even the dry-weather handling left him unmoved. “Not a car I’ll miss,” the Monegasque admitted bluntly.
Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying day was even worse. Misreading the pit-exit red light in Q1 cost him the chance to set another lap, leaving him stone last on the grid.
His response was unusually muted – seemingly taking Elkann’s “talk less” message at face value. “I don’t have much to say. I couldn’t get a lap,” he said.
“I’ll try to make up ground – that seems to be the story of my life.”
Afterwards he explained just how poor the visibility was: “I even hit a pole because I couldn’t see the corners. This is definitely my toughest year.”
Sky Italia pundit Ivan Capelli was brutal: “He should know what he’s doing. You’re told all this in the briefing.”
Tom Coronel, speaking on Viaplay, said Hamilton’s spirit looks broken. “He is so sour. You can see it in his body language. He’s basically saying nothing. He is done with it.”
Coronel said the collapse started when Ferrari began repeatedly changing team bosses. “They were fighting for the world title – since then it’s clearly gotten worse.”
When asked about the chaos engulfing the team he left at the end of last year, Carlos Sainz grinned: “You know the frog with the tea? You know the meme? That’s literally me right now.”
Perhaps the most telling sign of pressure at Maranello was team boss Frederic Vasseur’s sudden disappearance from the media rotation – no TV interviews, no Sky Italia, no print or online media – not even a quote in the press release.
On Saturday night, Max Verstappen won ahead of Lando Norris, who had taken pole in brutal conditions the day before.
The gap is now 42 points with two race weekends and a sprint remaining. “It’s still a big gap,” said the Dutchman.
Dr Helmut Marko praised the entire field, particularly for surviving one of the most slippery qualifying sessions any driver had ever seen.
“If I wanted that, I’d go rallying,” Verstappen said.
Marko: “Apart from Alex Albon, nobody crashed – and the conditions were really, really difficult.”
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