Charles Leclerc says he will accept mistake in F1 Imola GP clash after reviewing footage, as Alexander Albon plays it down while adding on Top 5 finish.
It was polar opposite Saturday and Sunday for Ferrari in F1 Imola GP. Both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were knocked out in Q2, but made striking headways in the race where the Brit ended up fourth and the Monegasque was sixth albeit after having to give up to Williams’ Albon.
The strategy helped Hamilton more than Leclerc, who did not have tyres to change to when the safety car was deployed. He had the option of soft but the team thought otherwise. Although, in hindsight, they might have opted for the soft compound considering the laps they eventually did.
Either way Leclerc would have had to defend from Albon, who was on the hard compound. The Monegasque likely would have earned a 5s time penalty but a timely intervention from Ferrari to swap, helped his cause – otherwise he would have dropped to fag end of the Top 10.
Leclerc was not too certain about the potential penalty as he felt he did right. He agreed that he will review the footage and if it is deemed otherwise, he will clear it out with Albon. The Thai, though, defended the Monegasque’s intent to retain the position in the corner.
The tight corner is such that hopping onto the gravel is easy, but interestingly none ventured on it until Albon. The Thai was slightly disappointed to miss out on fourth if not third, which was the reason why he hustled Leclerc more as Oscar Piastri was on degrading tyres.
Albon thought a bit more patience would have helped, but fifth in consecutive races is more than expected result anyways. Leclerc was not hugely happy, even though he made up five places. He reckons his fight shouldn’t be to come through the field, but push for podiums and or race wins.
Race, result –
Leclerc: “Yeah, very disappointed, everything was going towards us in the first stint and then there was a safety car which cost us many positions and then there was a second safety car, lost another few positions because I started to overheat and we couldn’t change the tyres because we didn’t have anything available, so it was a big shame. In the race [the car comes alive], but before that we don’t understand yet. Podium? Not with the safety car we had, it came out just at the wrong place with the strategy I had chosen, so I don’t think podium was possible.”
Albon: “It’s weird, isn’t it? On the pure race [outlook] we were fighting for P3, P4 – that’s no Safety Cars, that’s just the pure situation. Obviously, we were maybe a little bit lucky with the VSC, admittedly, but at the same time we got unlucky again on the last Safety Car. Back-to-back P5s [here and in Miami] and [we’re] coming away today a bit disappointed, which is a bit strange to say. Honestly, I keep telling myself it won’t happen again, it’s this race, and then we go to the next race and we’re still quick again. Is it circumstantial, is it not? I would honestly say Miami and here we’ve been quick… in my opinion, almost unexpectedly quick this weekend. I expected Miami to be good, but not here. It kind of opens the window for what else? Maybe next week we’re going to be good. I actually think Monaco won’t be too bad. I think in Barcelona we’re going to struggle, but let’s keep going and enjoying this while it lasts.”
Late collision –
Leclerc: “It was on the limit and I was aware inside the car, obviously I went into the corner and I knew it was going to be one of those that is going to be very tricky but once you go for the braking point then there’s no way to back off anymore. That was not the intention, I obviously wanted to try keep the position, I did my very best, was it over the limit or not, I’ll check back the footage. But I gave it all, I knew that I had to with the tyres I had that time, I couldn’t leave anything. It is true [about driving guidelines]. I mean we all have the rules in our head and we always try to play with them which is what I was trying to do today. Sometimes in those rules, you speak about a centimeter, whether it is within the rule or out of the rules…and judging it at 250 km/her is a bit tricky. I thought I was just in, obviously from outside it doesn’t look nice because at one side is gravel but I’ll look back at it. And I am always very honest, I think if I have done any mistake, I’ll say it to Alex but for now I don’t I did [anything wrong].”
Albon: “I do think each way you look at it, P4 was in it today. If the safety car didn’t come out at the end that was a P4. If you take the Charles’ incident that was also a P4. I’m not going to say I’m disappointed with P5. And honestly when I look at the battle with Charles, I would have done the same in his position. I don’t think he did anything that crazy. It’s just someone trying to hold their position and obviously [I] just lost out to Lewis. Just thinking about it, [I’ve] got to be better, being a bit more patient with Charles and see if I can get him a little bit later. But at that point in the race, honestly, I was feeling so good, I thought ‘Oscar’s up ahead on warm tyres, I can go after him and maybe get a P3’. So yeah, still very happy with the race.”
Vasseur: “I don’t think we have to go to the stewards next week (laughs). We are in between the race and then to have a guideline that if you have the mirror at the level of the rear axle, at least when you are in the car, to see if the mirror is at the level of the side pod or whatever, it’s a bit too much. In this case, we were under investigation. We were clearly at risk, with five seconds, Charles would have been to 10th or 11th. I think 11th at one stage. We had the feeling that they were more going in the direction of the penalty. That’s why we asked him to swap. It is true also…I was a bit surprised with the fact that we had more overtaking than expected. When it’s difficult and you have only one corner to overtake, it’s a bit all in on this one.”
Gasly –
Leclerc: “I was saying before the race, it was one of the races where you’ve got to race with the heart and you’ve got to put the elbows out a little bit. I know that when it’s like this, you go very much on the limit, sometimes a little bit over. But when you are starting P11, I mean, as a driver, I just cannot accept the situation we are in. I took risks. I don’t think that with Pierre Gasly, I was particularly at fault over the limit. It was just a racing incident in the way it was.”
Strategy –
Vasseur: “No, I don’t have the number of laps in mind now because we adapted the strategy to the circumstances. But if we did something like lap 9 or 10, it would have been too ambitious to do 51 or 52 laps with the hard compound. Regarding the choice in last stint, yeah, when we had the safety car, sorry, I can’t remember exactly the safety number. The safety car was something like 13, 14 laps before the end. And we didn’t know how many laps will stay the safety car. We didn’t have medium anymore. It was either to pit for soft or nothing. And soft was really on the edge. We were on the pit wall. We were not sure that when we started to communicate with Charles, at one stage, he understood that he would be on the edge.
“And I think it was a good call from Charles because when he saw that Lewis will pit, it’s okay that if I pit just behind Lewis, I will lose an extra five seconds and probably a position. Because we told him that Sainz was in the gust of the pit stop. I think it was the perfect call, well managed between the pit wall and Charles. And I spoke with Charles. And I said, okay, if we redo the race now, we pit for soft. We did eight or nine laps at the end. It’s really on the edge to survive with nine laps in the soft. We can have a very good start at the start of the safety car. But I think the end of the stint would have been more than needed.”
Here’s moment between Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-emilia-romagna-grand-prix-albon-forced-wide-in-battle-with-leclerc-who-is-then-forced-to-let-his-rival-through.1832473235505913545
Here’s how F1 Imola GP panned out