Charles Leclerc wants ‘full picture’ of Ferrari team order

Charles Leclerc says he wants to understand the “full picture” of Ferrari’s decision to impose team instructions during the early stages of Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Leclerc jumped Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the start but was unable to keep pace with Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas through the early laps.

Ferrari issued a hurry-up to Leclerc and shortly after requested for the Monegasque youngster to move aside, which he did along the pit straight on lap 11 of 56.

Chinese GP: Race Result | Drivers' Standings | Constructors' Standings

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Vettel was unable to pull away while Leclerc was subsequently compromised by Red Bull using the undercut to get Max Verstappen ahead.

It marked the third successive race in which Ferrari has used team instructions, after Leclerc was told to stay behind Vettel in Australia and Bahrain.

“I did a good start, and then the first stint was a little bit messy,” said Leclerc.

“Obviously I think you’ve seen on TV with Seb. I need to understand the full picture, to see the full picture, to speak with the engineers and understand the decision.

“I’m pretty sure there is for sure an explanation behind this decision and I will understand it.

“I need to look at the data and speak with the engineers first to understand. I don’t want to make any silly comments before that.

“Anyway, it’s the past. It has not been a great race for me, but overall the weekend has not been as strong as I wanted driving.

“In qualy it was OK, but in FP1, FP2 and FP3, and also going in the race without any mileage on high fuel runs was not ideal.

“Overall, today was not a good day, but we’ll come back stronger.”

Leclerc slipped to fifth place in the championship, a point behind Vettel, and 32 behind leader Lewis Hamilton.