Jeremy Clarkson isn’t buying the idea that a puff of wind should swing a Grand Prix weekend. In the wake of Charles Leclerc’s surprise pole for Ferrari in Hungary, the former Top Gear host used his Sunday Times column to rail against the wafer-thin margins that now decide outcomes in elite sport — and, by his measure, Formula 1 most of all.
“Look at Formula 1 motor racing,” Clarkson wrote. “We’ve reached a point now where six drivers in six different cars can be separated by less than a tenth of a second, and the winner is the one whose car is least affected by whatever breeze happens to be blowing at turn six that day. Breeze shouldn’t be a factor in sport, for God’s sake.”
Leclerc’s lap was a shock to just about everyone, including himself. After pipping McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris — the standard-bearers of 2025 so far — the Monegasque admitted he “does not understand anything about Formula 1,” and called it “probably one of the best pole positions I’ve ever had” precisely because it was so unexpected.
The conditions did the heavy lifting. Between Q2 and the decisive Q3 runs, track temperature slipped from 41°C to 37°C. The wind, timid earlier in qualifying at roughly 1–1.4 km/h, picked up to around 2–2.5 km/h with gusts near 3.3 km/h — and, crucially, flipped from a helpful headwind into Turn 2 to a fickle tail/crosswind. Other key corners around the Hungaroring were caught in the shuffle too. McLaren’s MCL39 has feasted in hotter windows this year; the cooler, breezier endgame opened the door.
Come Sunday, Ferrari couldn’t cash it in. Leclerc controlled the first half but bled pace late, then copped a penalty for erratic defending while scrapping George Russell’s Mercedes for the podium. Fourth at the flag felt like a near-miss wrapped in a warning.
The underlying issue? As has been suggested, Ferrari have been spooked by skid-block wear — the same compliance headache that saw Lewis Hamilton disqualified in China earlier in the year. In Budapest, that reportedly meant hiking tyre pressures and dialing back engine modes as the race wore on. It’s part of a wider story with the SF-25’s ride-height sensitivity, a trait the team hoped to tame with a significant rear-suspension upgrade rolled out at Spa. The Hungary evidence hints the gremlin hasn’t been fully chased away.
Clarkson’s gripe about the “breeze” may sound like theatre, but he’s poking at a real truth: in 2025’s ultra-tight field, a four-degree swing and a crosswind can flip the script. Ferrari proved it on Saturday. On Sunday, their bigger storm was still inside the car.
