This year, Ferrari is “struggling like crazy” with a car they don’t comprehend, according to Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc finished eighth in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, while teammate Carlos Sainz slipped from third to fifth.
“We have a car that is extremely difficult to drive at high speeds.” “We’re a long way away,” Leclerc added.
“I’m at a loss for words as to why we’re so far back in the race and so close in qualifying.”
In Miami, Leclerc had the one-lap pace to start on the first row, but he wrecked in qualifying. The Ferrari demonstrated its typical lack of speed on race day.
“We’re competitive in qualifying, but we’re struggling like crazy on race day,” Leclerc, 25, added. “Our car’s window is so narrow that even if you get a little bit out, it has a huge impact on the balance.”
“It’s from one corner to the next, and even within one corner, you can have huge understeer that leads to huge oversteer, which is not ideal for having confidence in the car.”
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Leclerc said that the car was also quite wind sensitive.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he remarked. We have to come up with something. We’ve been battling in the race for a while now, and we need to solve certain problems.”
He and teammate Sainz noted the vehicle behaved differently on different types of tyres, and team manager Frederic Vasseur acknowledged it was different for each driver.
“With Charles, we were much more performant on the hard (tyre), and with Carlos, we were much more performant on the medium,” Vasseur explained. “And we were a little inconsistent from one lap to the next.”
