Charles Leclerc thinks the Hungarian Grand Prix has shown Ferrari’s “biggest problem” is outright competitiveness rather than car characteristics as he qualified sixth.
Ferrari’s recent struggles continued at the Hungaroring as the Italian team was unable to get involved in the battle to seize pole position versus McLaren and Red Bull.
Leclerc entered this event having endured a wretched run that comprised 12 points in four rounds since winning in Monaco and he looked on the backfoot once more.
The Monegasque struggled to match team-mate Carlos Sainz when the track was damp earlier in proceedings and needed another run in Q1 to ensure he progressed.
Leclerc would rue having to run more fresh Softs in that opening stage as it put him at a disadvantage with one attempt on newer rubber in the pole position shootout.
But while he cited that wrestling the car through the last turn cost him a spot to Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc has professed that Ferrari is again lacking pace this weekend.
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t feel like it would have hurt us or neither benefit us,” Leclerc said regarding the cooler conditions.
“I think the picture was very similar to what we expected yesterday. And yeah, we are just lacking some pace at the moment.
“I think the best result for the team could have been P4-P5. I didn’t do the lap of my life and in the last corner I lost a few hundredths which cost me the P5.
“But apart from that, there wasn’t much more on the table.
“So, we’ve got to work because obviously it’s clear that we are lacking some pace against McLaren and the Red Bull. And we are pretty similar with Mercedes.”
Leclerc, who will start two places behind Sainz, suspects Ferrari’s single chance at beating cars ahead will come down to managing the tyres in the hotter conditions.
Asked whether he suspects fourth and fifth is the best Ferrari can strive to achieve in the race, Leclerc replied: “Yes, I think so.
“With the warm weather it might change and obviously the tyre management will be a big thing. So, we’ve got to work on that and prepare for that.”
Ferrari has introduced a revised floor in Budapest in a bid to tackle the bouncing in high speed that has been prevalent since its recent upgrade package in Barcelona.
But with the slower-speed Hungaroring less punishing on Ferrari’s main weakness, Leclerc has conceded that this weekend has shown the marque has a pace deficit.
Pressed on whether he had noticed an overall handling improvement with the new part, Leclerc replied: “In some characteristics, yes.
“But obviously for now we are still quite a long way behind McLaren and Red Bull.
“So, there’s a lot of work we need to do still. But we are aware of it and I know the team is giving it all. But yeah, it improves some characteristics.”
Leclerc, who ran an “extreme” set-up in Silverstone to help Ferrari solve its struggles, has stressed that he wasn’t anticipating a seismic leap to come from the update.
Instead, the six-time F1 race winner has acknowledged that the Maranello-based squad must strive to bring developments tailored towards making the SF-24 quicker.
“I think also coming into the weekend I knew that we need more to get back to the level of McLaren and Red Bull,” he added.
“But I think the best thing we could do this weekend is to instead of keep experimenting and not maximising our weekend, it was very important for us to maximise this weekend.
“Which honestly I think we did. The biggest problem now is that we don’t have the performance to do much better. So, that’s where we’ll focus on in the development for the future.”
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