Leclerc on the boos: “A lot of shouting, I didn’t do it on purpose”

At the start of the race at the Hermanos Rodríguez circuit, Max Verstappen overtook pole position holder Leclerc and Perez looked to do the same – after making a fantastic start – from outside the first corner. However, when Verstappen turned slightly to the left while turning, Leclerc did the same to avoid him and came into contact with Perez’s RB19.

The Mexican’s car lifted off the ground, hit the asphalt again violently and landed in the escape area of ​​the curve. Perez managed to return to the pits, but there the team discovered that the damage to the suspension, floor, front wing and side vents was so extensive that it was impossible to continue the race.

Leclerc’s Ferrari suffered front wing damage, which the Scuderia eventually replaced due to Kevin Magnussen’s accident, and the Monegasque man managed to finish third in the race. In the course of the park ferme, the interviews and the podium place in the Foro Sol stadium, he experienced the unintentional disapproval of the Mexicans.

“A lot of whining, a lot of whining, people.” Leclerc said to the audience. “Honestly, I had nowhere to go. I was between the two Red Bulls and unfortunately I touched the Czech, but I couldn’t go anywhere.

That’s life, my car was damaged and unfortunately the Czech’s race ended, but we for our part got the most out of it. That’s life. Of course I’m sorry that the game ended like that, but honestly I didn’t do it on purpose and I didn’t know where to go.” added the Ferrari driver.

Leclerc lost second place to Lewis Hamilton over the course of the race and admitted that Mercedes simply had better race speed than Ferrari, who had made a double start in a qualifying round a day earlier.

After colliding with Perez, the 25-year-old remained on the track until the piece of broken wing came loose – forcing organizers to use a virtual safety vehicle to remove the fragment from the tarmac.

After the race, the race stewards called together Leclerc and Ferrari officials to determine whether Monegasse and the Scuderia had violated safety regulations by continuing to drive with a faulty and potentially dangerous component.

At the meeting, attended by FIA car director Nicolas Tombazis and technical director Joe Bauer, Ferrari said it was confident the car was safe for the first two laps and did not believe the broken fender section could come loose.

That changed on lap 3 when they noticed a significant change in the data, so they planned to call Leclerc into the pits for a front wing change. But before they could do so, the broken part came loose.

Based on an October 2022 FIA decision, the detachment of part of the wing and its landing on the track did not constitute a breach of safety regulations by the teams, so Leclerc was not penalized. So the Monegasque, who had been disqualified from the US GP a week earlier due to excessive ground wear, retained his place on the podium this time.