Behind the safety car during Saturday’s sprint, the Ferrari driver appeared to sound the alarm that the power unit had been cut, publicly disclosing it via on-screen graphics on television.
Asked about his comments about “cutting in” in his official post-sprint press conference, Leclerc clarified that he was actually talking about a cat running through the path of the safety car.
The feline interloper caused the safety car to brake briefly, which was reported by race leader Leclerc by radio.
Asked whether misidentified wounds would be a recurring problem, Leclerc replied: “Absolutely not. I’m talking about a cat, it’s different!
“There was a cat in the middle of the road and the safety car had to stop, but I thought I might be the only one who saw it.
“But yeah, there was a cat coming out of Turn 1, the safety car braked. It’s not bad, but I feel like I have to say it!”
Leclerc explained that Ferrari’s performance at the Australian Grand Prix was taken to the next level, which he said earlier in the weekend provided the team with a breakthrough setup.
He warned the team still needed to “find something” in the race, having performed well in both qualifying sessions at the Baku circuit to secure pole for the sprint and grand prix.
But once the Red Bull driver used DRS, he fell behind eventual champion Sergio Perez, and the gap continued to widen as Leclerc tried to keep the tires alive.
“I didn’t know that race well, but I tried my best,” Leclerc explained.
“We’re still lacking some pace in the game and that’s definitely what we’re focusing on at the moment. It’s been a long time now.
“So we’re working on that, trying to find something for the race. In qualifying we seemed to be doing fine – having said that, I believe we’ve taken a step forward.
“If you look at Australia and here, we’re better. We’re not at Red Bull’s level yet, so there’s a lot of work to be done, but I’m more happy with the car.
“Once you start with tire degradation, that’s when Checo starts to disappear. Max (Verstappen) starts to come back. From that moment on, we had a little bit of a disadvantage.”