The last set of tires was fitted with too much pressure, perhaps to speed up heating given the low temperatures. But there is another scenario that would have caused the rear suspension modification to fail.

Leclerc’s Hungarian F1 Grand Prix, which started from pole position, ended with a disappointing fourth place after the Monegasque driver quickly had to give up in the final stint to George Russell, with an SF-25 that had become virtually undriveable. The reasons behind the radical drop in performance of Charles’ car could be found in the tire pressure used in the last stint, which was too high. In fact, they were so far outside the ideal operating window that the car became almost unmanageable, forcing Leclerc to lap about a second slower than his direct rivals, starting with Oscar Piastri.

If this is the scenario that deprived Leclerc—who had seemed in total control of the race for forty laps—of a possible victory, it is important to understand what caused it. In other words, whether it was a wrong choice, but one made deliberately by the team, whether it was an accident, or a mix of both. Leclerc, interviewed after the race, spoke generically about a chassis problem that, from lap 40 onwards, radically changed the dynamic behavior of his SF-25. Fred Vasseur later explained that by chassis, Charles meant that it was a problem unrelated to the power unit. Gathering the opinions of some technicians after the race, it was pointed out that the ambient temperatures were low compared to the seasonal average. This was particularly evident on Saturday in qualifying, with very low temperatures on the asphalt. Taking this into account, it seemed plausible that the Scuderia technicians may have chosen to increase the base pressure of the tires prepared for the second and, above all, the third stint with the aim of speeding up the warming up of the tires, i.e., their ability to quickly enter the optimal operating temperature range. In this sense, a team radio message from Piastri’s track engineer after Leclerc’s second pit stop, warning him of the possible slow warm-up of the Monegasque’s tires, could be considered indirect confirmation of this theory. This would have been further aggravated by the heat transmitted from the brake calipers to the tires, causing inflation pressure to rise well above the correct operating range.

suspension theory—  However, a second theory has gradually gained ground in the paddock. It is also linked to excessive tire pressure, but with a much more puzzling underlying reason. We are referring to the hypothesis that the Scuderia technicians set a higher tire pressure for the last set to avoid excessive wear on the bottom of the car. However plausible, this hypothesis would implicitly represent an admission of the failure of the rear suspension modification introduced at Spa. It is worth remembering that one of the objectives of the modification was precisely to ensure the use of extreme setups with minimal ground clearance, but without incurring the excessive wear on the floor that had led to Leclerc’s disqualification in China. It therefore seems more reasonable to think that it was the combination of higher tire pressure to induce faster warm-up and the heat transferred from the brake discs to the rims that created the perfect storm in which Leclerc’s hopes of success were miserably dashed.