In a dramatic turn of events that left Charles Leclerc doing more pedal dancing than a teenager at a disco, the Monegasque maestro’s hopes for a champagne-soaked podium were scuttled by persistently pesky brakes at the season’s inaugural race.

Leclerc’s partner in prancing horse power, Carlos Sainz Jr., also had a brief flirtation with similar brake blues during his opening act, but it was more of a fleeting glance than the lingering gaze of disaster that befell Leclerc.

By the race’s crescendo, Leclerc had somewhat tamed his unruly steed, enough to swoop past George Russell for fourth place, though it’s fair to say Russell’s Mercedes was coughing and spluttering like a two-bit lawnmower, thanks to an overheating power unit.

The drama peaked when Leclerc, no stranger to the odd theatrical moment, radioed his pit wall to declare that driving his Ferrari was akin to taming a wild beast, branding the experience “dangerous”. Earlier, upon being overtaken by Russell post-haste, it appeared Leclerc’s main gripe was with his brakes, an observation confirmed when he and his race engineer, Xavier Marcos Padros, had more back-and-forths than a Wimbledon final.

Initial theories pointed fingers at Leclerc’s tyres, conspiring to undermine his race from lap seven, when a particularly audacious lock-up handed Perez third place on a silver platter. Ferrari’s strategy—a bold tyre swap from soft to hard—seemed to whisper promises of salvation. Alas, it was not to be.

Emerging onto the track shod with hard tyres, Leclerc quickly realised his problem was not rubber but rather a cantankerous brake, hotter than a British tourist in Ibiza, showing a staggering 100C discrepancy. Despite further valiant efforts and some strategic fiddling by the Ferrari pit wall, Leclerc’s brake woes persisted, his hope of a podium finish fizzling out like a damp squib.

But as luck, or perhaps misfortune for Russell, would have it, the Mercedes driver’s power unit decided it had had enough of this mortal coil, granting Leclerc a fourth-place finish. Not quite the triumphant march he’d hoped for, but given the circumstances, a heroic effort nonetheless.

In the aftermath, as Leclerc and his team began to dissect the conundrum that had plagued their race, Team Principal Frederic Vasseur swooped in like a hawk, keen to keep any tactical revelations from prying rivals’ ears. Ah, the ceaseless gamesmanship of Formula 1—where even a brake problem is considered state secrets. Riveting stuff.

Photo: By Roberto Monti - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119842944