The Ferrari driver was battling title rival Max Verstappen during the frantic first lap of the 2022 Belgian GP race when a tear-off from the Dutchman got stuck in the F1’s front right brake duct. -75.
This caused the temperature of the discs to increase, forcing the Monegasque to make a pit stop very early to remove it, as well as putting him in a poor timing of the strategy with respect to the rest of the grid.
After having driven with several tear-offs flying during the first lap due to the remains of liquid that Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes spewed, Leclerc believes that the situation should be investigated to avoid a recurrence of the problem in the future.
Ferrari’s suggests that drivers be forced to keep the tear-offs inside the cockpit, as they were asked a few years ago in a previous attempt to prevent these elements from getting stuck somewhere in the cars.
“I think maybe going forward it will be good if we find a solution to keep the tear-offs inside the car,” the Monegasque said when asked by Motorsport.com. “In that particular situation, I think somebody was leaking oil or something, I couldn’t see anything with that visor, just like everyone else in front of me.”
“So the first chance we had, we took a tear-off off, and it was on that straight,” revealed Charles Leclerc. “I found them flying everywhere, and in that case, you can’t do much as a pilot.”
“Obviously I’m not mad at Max [Verstappen], and it’s not the drivers’ fault, but we could find a way to keep the tear-offs inside the car,” said the Monaco driver.
The FIA prohibits the throwing of tear-offs to the track in the International Sporting Code, and in article 1.3 of chapter III of Appendix L of the CDI it is indicated that “any tear-off element fixed may not be unnecessarily thrown onto the track or into the pitlane. to the visors.”
Already in 2016, the international federation made an effort to strictly apply this rule, and planned to require the pilots to keep any discarded item inside the cockpit, but after criticism from the participants themselves, finally, the one who then held the position of Race director Charlie Whiting said there was more risk keeping the tear-offs than throwing them away.
When asked about the old rule, Charles Leclerc said: “I guess there were reasons for removing it, which I’m not aware of, but maybe there are other solutions.”
