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Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc admitted the team had to "look in the mirror" following a major strategic blunder at the Sepang circuit during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend.
In highly unpredictable weather conditions, the Scuderia opted to start the race on dry tyres – a call also shared by several rivals. However, the move backfired as drivers on intermediate tyres quickly opened up a commanding lead over the rest of the field, including the Italian outfit's machinery.
The damage for those caught on the wrong rubber was mitigated by a Safety Car deployment. That allowed Ferrari to rejoin the lead group and limit the fallout, with Lewis Hamilton crossing the line in third and Leclerc finishing right behind him in fourth.
Despite the solid final result, Charles stressed that the team did not downplay the error and conducted a thorough debrief immediately after the race.
"After every race where we don't make the right calls or things don't go to plan, we do a full debrief as a team," Leclerc told the media in Singapore. "We examine what each of us individually could have done better, and that's exactly what we did. It wouldn't be right to go into detail regarding the final conclusions, but moments like this certainly require us to look in the mirror. It's completely obvious we got the tyre choice wrong at the start. We will learn from it. We conducted an in-depth analysis, worked hard on the issue, and I'm confident we will take a step forward."
At the same time, Leclerc pointed out that the line between the right and wrong decision at Sepang was razor-thin, noting that several rivals were caught out as well.
"You have to admit that at the start, half the grid got the strategy right and the other half got it wrong," he added. "This is neither the first nor the last time that will happen – sometimes the picture isn't crystal clear, as was the case here. However, we regrouped and looked into absolutely everything we could have done better."
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