Charles Leclerc lamented “something strange” with the car compounding Ferrari’s uninspiring pace as he qualified in eighth place for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
Leclerc’s Saturday at the Miami International Autodrome started on a catastrophic note as contact with the barrier en route to the grid ruled him out of the Sprint race.
The Monegasque’s mistake would have grave consequences on his side as team-mate Lewis Hamilton capitalised on the mixed conditions to charge through to third.
But while he recognised his role in the accident, Leclerc believes Ferrari contributed to his failure to start with the call to go out on Intermediates with rain descending.
“Honestly, I can drive around a hundred times and there’s not much you can do as a driver,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week.
“I think the mistake was in the first place to be out on Inter tyres with those track conditions, and this we need to understand what we’ve done wrong as a team.
“I won’t go too deep into that, but obviously I think this was the main mistake that then cost us a lot.
“But yeah, obviously that made the whole day a lot more difficult for the mechanics; for me as well, not doing as many laps as others.”
Leclerc highlights abnormal Ferrari
Leclerc rebounded to ensure he should line up as the lead Ferrari in the main event, but he was unable to place higher than eighth despite managing to advance to Q3.
The eight-time F1 race winner highlighted that something was amiss with his Ferrari, though he was unsure whether that was related to the set-up direction he picked.
“But I don’t feel like I’ve paid the price of it [the Sprint incident] today,” he continued. “Then in qualifying, we were just not fast enough.
“We’ve got to analyse, there was something strange on our side.
“I had to change massively the car, the tools and everything in order to have kind of a balance I liked, but I went… yeah, it was very different.
“So we’ve got to look into it to understand what happened there.”
Asked whether it was possible that a problem could have arisen with the rebuild, Leclerc responded: “I don’t want to say that for now.
“The mechanics have done an incredible job putting everything on, and to be honest, we’ve changed a few things on the car as well in terms of set-up.
“It’s unclear to me whether the set-up changes had a much bigger impact than what I thought, or whether there’s something off. But yeah, this will look tonight.”
Leclerc ‘frustrated’ by Ferrari struggles
Leclerc admitted Ferrari’s current struggles are “frustrating”, as he acknowledged this weekend has exposed the limitations of the team’s capricious SF-25 machine.
“It is frustrating, but to be honest, this weekend I feel like – and that’s probably even more so frustrating – is that I feel we are maximising the potential of the car,” he said.
“It’s just that the potential of the car is just not there.
“When I finish a lap, again today in qualifying, I feel very satisfied with my lap, but it’s only bringing us whatever it is, P8 or something.
“So yeah, we’ve got to look at it. I think a track like this also highlights our weaknesses. There’s a lot of low-speed content.
“Both Williams are in front of us and I consider my lap a good one. So I think it’s pretty easy to understand where we are lacking.”
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