Charles Leclerc says he and Lewis Hamilton are “passengers” of Ferrari’s System 1 automobile, as they will’t outperform it to get again to the rostrum positions.
Ferrari has had powerful weekends in Baku and Singapore, the place the highest 5 eluded the Scuderia in each qualifying and the race, with the shortage of tempo compounded by important braking points on the Marina Bay Road Circuit.
“From lap 8, principally, it was all about managing these brakes,” Leclerc stated after ending sixth in Singapore, whereas Hamilton took eighth place. “I believe all people has to handle, to a sure extent, on a monitor like this. However I believe we had been on the worst facet of issues and that makes it extraordinarily tough. Our complete race was very tough.”
In Baku, Leclerc had let Hamilton by way of to offer him an opportunity to assault the automobiles in entrance, however the Briton didn’t cede the place again to his team-mate. He was scheduled to do it in Singapore as a substitute, however worsening braking issues meant he dropped behind Leclerc anyway.
“I actually do not suppose that that is the largest downside of the crew for the time being,” the Monegasque nonetheless insisted.
“Sadly, we do not have the race automobile to combat with the blokes in entrance. McLaren has all the time had the identical hole on us in comparison with the start of the 12 months. Crimson Bull did a step from Monza and had the identical degree of McLaren. Mercedes now’s on the similar degree of McLaren and Crimson Bull, after which there’s us.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network
“It is not straightforward, clearly, since you wish to combat for higher positions. However for the time being, it simply looks like we’re type of passengers to the automobile and we can’t extract rather more.”
The ‘passenger’ feeling in all probability extends to the SF-25’s behaviour, which Leclerc described as understeery, but “nonetheless very snappy and unpredictable”, after qualifying.
Therefore his pessimism concerning the final six rounds of the marketing campaign: “The image we have seen this weekend goes to be what the remainder of the season appears to be like like for us.”
That is tough to swallow for the 27-time polesitter and eight-time grand prix winner, who had not skilled such a scarcity of efficiency because the 2021 season – particularly after Ferrari missed out to McLaren by 14 factors for the 2024 constructors’ title.
“Clearly, coming from a 12 months like final 12 months, the place you might be combating for the world constructors’ championship and then you definately come right here with excessive expectations, you come low of your expectations from the start and you do not even see a development all year long, it is not straightforward,” Leclerc admitted, although he reiterated his unwavering drive to beat this hardship.
“It takes a number of vitality, however that does not demotivate me. It motivates me, if something, rather more to attempt to flip the scenario round.”
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