Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had a disappointing qualifying session at the Austrian Grand Prix.
On his final lap, he made a mistake entering Turn 4. In an attempt to recover time in the subsequent corners, Leclerc’s plan backfired, seeing him end up in the gravel at turns 6 and 9.
Despite his confidence that set-up changes could have secured a better result, he ended up in sixth position.
Speaking after the session, he admits a front or second row start was on.
“I would say that we did some steps forward compared to this morning, we changed quite a few things on the car.”
“However, I’m a bit disappointed with my second lap in Q3. I did a mistake there, which cost us, I think, a good opportunity to be back in the top three.”
As the team attempts to close the gap at the front, Leclerc conceded that the main issue they’re having with the SF-24 is a lack of grip and performance compared to Red Bull and McLaren, but he affirmed that there was more pace in the car after making some set-up changes ahead of qualifying.
“Overall grip, if you compare it to Red Bull or McLaren.
“However, we have a pretty good balance, and I think that in qualifying we did a better job with that. We changed quite a few things on the car since sprint race, and it went in the right direction.
“But, as I said, I did a mistake in Q3, which cost us the opportunity to be further up in the standings.”
When asked about the exact set-up changes they made ahead of the session, he noted focusing on the high-speed performance and race potential.
“Quite a few. I’m not going to go too much into details, but just the car in high speed felt in a better place.
“And I also feel like the direction I took today is probably a bit more beneficial for the race, which is good.
“But, it’s a bit of a shame that I did a mistake and that we are starting P7, which made my life a bit more difficult for tomorrow.”
Leclerc says the car is still working fine in high speed corners, as was the case in Barcelona. Ferrari’s main issue is having to compromise performance in one type ahead of corner to help in other areas.
“I still think so when we are putting the car good in the high speed.”
“But the problem is that when we put the car good in high speed, then in low speed we are losing too much. And so it’s always a balance that we need to find. So we might seem weak in high speed, but it’s just because we’ve got to optimise the car also for low speed.
“So it’s a balance and it’s a short blanket that we have at the moment. So it’s tricky, but I still believe that the high speed is not our main problem.”
Looking ahead at tomorrow’s race, Leclerc expressed his certainty that he can achieve a podium finish despite the pace deficit compared to Max Verstappen and both McLarens
“Compared to Max and the McLaren, I think we are quite far this weekend. In qualifying with the McLaren, I don’t think we are that far. In the race, I would expect them to have the upper hand tomorrow.
“Yes, I do [expect to be stronger in race trim versus the Sprint]. A little bit, not a huge step, but I would expect it to be better tomorrow than what we’ve seen this morning.
“Top three is optimistic, but realistic.”
