Ferrari says it cannot yet explain why it suffered a drop-in performance at the United States Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc lamenting “really, really poor grip.”
Ferrari claimed three wins after the summer break, and was in the mix at every other event, prompting team boss Mattia Binotto to hail its in-season progress.
But at the Circuit of the Americas Leclerc slumped to a lonely fourth, finishing 52 seconds behind victor Valtteri Bottas, while Sebastian Vettel plunged from second to seventh prior to a suspension failure.
Binotto angrily dismissed speculation that Ferrari’s pace was related to a recently-issued technical directive over the fuel flow metre sensor.
Leclerc commented that “on the first stint especially I’ve got no explanation” over the lack of performance.
“Something felt wrong, we need to analyse and understand what went wrong on that.
“Second and third stint was actually not as bad as the first one, but we were still slower than the leaders.
“So I think we need to analyse what went wrong on the first stint, I had problems with the front on some of the corners, it was actually pretty inconsistent all through the first stint.
“But to be honest I have no answers to what went wrong, just felt like really, really poor grip.”
Vettel’s race was only eight laps old when his suspension failed in spectacular style through Turn 9, with Ferrari still investigating the issue.
“It’s not clear even if the suspension was broken since the very start, it could be, as the initial feeling was something was wrong with the car so maybe it was broken,” said Binotto.
“But from the data and when it has been broken it’s not clear yet.”
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