Charles Leclerc says Ferrari are “struggling like loopy” with a automobile they don’t perceive this 12 months.
Leclerc completed seventh in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, whereas team-mate Carlos Sainz dropped from third on the grid to complete fifth.
“We’ve got a automobile that’s so extremely tough to be on the restrict. We’re very, very distant,” mentioned Leclerc.
“I wrestle to search out an evidence as to why we’re so distant within the race and so shut in qualifying.”
Leclerc had the one-lap tempo to start out the race on the entrance row in Miami however crashed in qualifying. On race day the Ferrari exhibited its typical lack of tempo.
“We’re aggressive in qualifying however as soon as we come to race day we’re struggling like loopy,” Leclerc, 25, mentioned. “The window of our automobile is so slim and everytime you get a little bit bit out it has enormous penalties on the stability.
“It is from one nook to the opposite and even in a single nook generally you’ll be able to have enormous understeer which works to large oversteer and this isn’t excellent to trust within the automobile.”
The automobile was additionally very delicate to wind, Leclerc added.
He mentioned: “We’ve got quite a lot of work to do. We have to discover one thing. We’ve got been struggling within the race since a little bit time now and we have to give you some points.”
He and team-mate Sainz mentioned that the automobile was additionally exhibiting completely different behaviour on several types of tyre – and workforce boss Frederic Vasseur mentioned that it was additionally completely different for every driver.
“With Charles we had been far more performant on the laborious (tyre), and with Carlos far more performant on the medium,” Vasseur mentioned. “And from one lap to the opposite we had been a bit inconsistent.”
Leclerc mentioned: “It is all the time an unknown whether or not the automobile goes to react nicely, whether or not the tyres are going to be in the appropriate window.
“That is simply very tough additionally as a driver to achieve the boldness and to adapt your driving since you get from one set to the opposite and the automobile is totally in a unique window.”
Leclerc was Crimson Bull driver Max Verstappen’s closest challenger for the world title final 12 months, earlier than their season imploded with a sequence of race-management and technique errors.
These errors led to former workforce principal Mattia Binotto dropping his job over the winter.
Ferrari entered this season anticipating to have the ability to combat Crimson Bull for the championship once more however discover themselves in fourth place within the constructors’ championship after 5 races, additionally behind Aston Martin and Mercedes.
They launched a brand new flooring in Miami nevertheless it had little impact on the automobile’s competitiveness. Additional upgrades are deliberate for the subsequent race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on 19-21 Might, the primary of three races on consecutive weekends.
