Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari maximised its package at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, but admitted the speed of Red Bull and McLaren left the team “in the middle of nowhere”.
The Monegasque finished fourth in the race at Monza, 25 seconds behind race-winner Max Verstappen and four seconds adrift of third-placed Oscar Piastri.
It was a retention of Leclerc’s grid position, having initially grabbed third from the Australian, before eventually falling behind the McLaren amid a testy duel between the two.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished in sixth, in what was an impressive recovery drive after starting 10th, but felt an undercut could have seen him snatch fifth from George Russell.
Speaking after the race, Leclerc conceded that the Red Bull and McLaren pace was too much for Ferrari to contend with, but said it did what it could with its own performance.
“No, we were not fast enough for the guys in front,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“We were a bit faster than the Mercedes, not so much actually, I thought they were doing better than what we expected, especially with the hot weather.
“That’s normally [where] they struggle more, so they were quite close to us, but we were as fast as we could.”
Ferrari given reality check on Saturday after FP1 dominance
In Friday’s first free practice session, Ferrari gave the partisan tifosi something to cheer about, with Hamilton and Leclerc locking out a 1-2 in the final classification.
A further strong showing in FP2 signalled a potentially realistic quest for pole and victory, but Leclerc said that it was sent “back to reality” come qualifying.
“I honestly don’t think so,” he replied when asked whether there was more the team could have done.
“I mean we were very fast on Friday, but we knew that we were maybe a little bit closer to our quali configuration compared to the others.
“Then Saturday was back to reality and then on Sunday there wasn’t much more we could have done.
“So I think we maximised the weekend, I just think Red Bull this year brought a package for low downforce trucks and it seems to have worked very well for them.
“McLaren I know didn’t really have such an extreme set-up and maybe they struggled a little bit more, but they were still a lot faster than us, so we were a little bit in the middle of nowhere.”
Hamilton was distinctly improved in his mood at Monza, saying that whilst the SF-25 still feels “alien” to him, there is a lot of marked improvement.
Leclerc concluded that the team did the best possible job at Monza, but the car is still on the fringes of a potential victory, rather than at the forefront.
“We did our best, I mean I don’t think that we left anything on the table on that, it’s just that for now we don’t have quite [have] the car,” he concluded.
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