After a difficult Friday at Silverstone, Charles Leclerc has admitted that Ferrari is not in the mix to fight for top honours in this weekend’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
Leclerc’s Ferrari looked like it was dancing on a knife’s edge, especially through high-speed corners as the Scuderia’s struggles continued with bouncing.
The Monegasque driver finished eighth in FP1 and fifth in FP2, six-tenths off of the pace set by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Upon review of Ferrari’s Friday exploits, Leclerc downplayed expectations for the remainder of the weekend.
“I don’t feel like it’s the case, personally,” Leclerc said on Friday afternoon when asked if Ferrari could trouble the top positions on Sunday.
“Unfortunately it feels like Red Bull and McLaren are a long way ahead this weekend but let’s wait and see, I hope I’m wrong.”
On multiple occasions Leclerc had to cope with the rear of his Ferrari stepping out, exposing the difficulties the team is having with the upgraded spec car it introduced a fortnight ago at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Ferrari resigned itself to the fact Friday was a journey of discovery as it sought to understand how to optimise its capricious package.
“It’s been a tricky day but we’ve learnt a lot and I hope, I mean now it’s going to be all about analysing the data of both cars and take the best decision for tomorrow,” said Leclerc.
“Obviously there is lots of data to look at and everybody is flat out on them to try and take the best decision for tomorrow.
“But it’s been a very productive day, not particularly fast unfortunately but a very productive one so now we are in the process of looking at everything.
“So I cannot really give you the direction we’ll go into yet but we are on it and I’m confident that it will take the best decision for us tomorrow.”
Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz agreed that McLaren is the benchmark this weekend, one that the two scarlet red cars are unlikely to match.
The Spaniard, like Leclerc, was also experimenting with set-up and finished ninth and eighth in FP1 and FP2 respectively.
“Definitely McLaren seems to be a step ahead, like over the last couple of weekends,” Sainz said.
“You know, McLaren has been a clear one or two steps in front of us and I feel like it’s the same this weekend.
“Obviously we are trying to do everything we can to understand this package and how we can make it quicker but McLaren is in a different league.”
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