Leclerc revealed Ferrari strategy details to Gasly before Bahrain Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc was extremely keen to attempt a one-stop strategy during the Bahrain Grand Prix and even revealed details of Ferrari’s strategy analysis to one of his rivals.

Pierre Gasly told his race engineer Josh Peckett and the listening Alpine team the information he said Leclerc shared with him before the start of the race.

After returning to the cockpit of his car on the grid before the race Gasly came on his radio and related details of a conversation between the pair from the pre-race drivers’ parade. “I spoke with Leclerc in the parade and they think the one-stop is 1.5 seconds slower than the two-stop, only, so they might try that,” he said.

Leclerc’s eagerness to try a one-stop strategy became clear shortly before the race began, as Ferrari’s drivers were the only ones among the top 10 starters who opted for the harder medium tyre compound instead of softs. However soon after the race began, as Gasly took up sixth place immediately behind Leclerc, the Alpine driver began to doubt whether the Ferrari driver’s plan would pay off.

On lap six Gasly told Peckett: “Leclerc is struggling a lot with the medium.” Despite this Gasly started to fall back, out of DRS range behind the Ferrari as his soft tyres began to fade.

At the start of the race, Leclerc observed how few of his rivals had joined him starting on the mediums. George Russell and Lando Norris both started on softs and immediately passed the Ferrari on the run to turn one. Leclerc then had his mirrors full of Gasly’s car for half-a-dozen laps:

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As the soft-shod drivers began to pit, Ferrari realised their pace on the mediums and the expected performance of the hard tyres meant a single stop strategy would not be competitive. They preferred plan ‘B’ – two stints on medium compounds followed by one on hard – while Leclerc lobbied for plan ‘D’ – presumably a single stop to take hard tyres, which they never attempted.

When race engineer Bryan Bozzi called Leclerc in for a second set of mediums, the driver knew the team was abandoning the one-stop plan, which would end his chances of another Monza 2024-style victory. He made one last effort to persuade them to switch to a single stop strategy, but though he had told Gasly their simulations indicated it was only one-and-a-half seconds slower than pitting twice, Bozzi informed him Ferrari’s updated model now indicated it would cost five seconds more:

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After making his final pit stop, Leclerc came out behind Gasly, and quickly passed him:

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At the end of the race, Gasly’s race engineer informed him that no one had used Leclerc’s preferred strategy:

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