Charles Leclerc will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from P6 as Ferrari’s recent struggles continued.
The Monegasque driver was half a tenth away from Lewis Hamilton in Q3 on Saturday and said he lost that time in the last corner. Nonetheless, he has been a couple of tenths off teammate Carlos Sainz throughout the weekend over a single lap.
The Monaco GP winner says the cooler conditions did not change much.
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t feel like it would have hurt us or neither benefit us, I think. The picture was very similar to what we expected yesterday. And yeah, we are just lacking some pace at the moment.
“I think the best result for the team could have been P4-P5. I didn’t do the lap of my life and in the last corner I lost a few hundreds which cost me the P5. But apart from that, there wasn’t much more on the table.
“So we’ve got to work because obviously it’s clear that we are lacking some pace against McLaren and the Red Bull. And we are pretty similar with Mercedes.”
Regarding race pace and tyre management, Leclerc says the maximum Ferrari can do is 4th and 5th if it’s a normal day at the front.
“Yes, I think so. With the warm weather it might change and obviously the tyre management will be a big thing. So we’ve got to work on that and prepare for that.”
Ferrari brought a modified floor to Budapest to help cure the bouncing that they have been experiencing since Barcelona. While Leclerc says it’s helped a bit, the reality is Ferrari lacks performance compared to McLaren and Red Bull.
“In some characteristics, yes.
“But obviously for now we are still quite a long way behind McLaren and Red Bull. So there’s a lot of work we need to do still. But we are aware of it and I know the team is giving it all.
“But yeah, it improves some characteristics.”
Following a rough run of results, the 26-year-old said focusing on scoring points and having a clean weekend has been key.
Leclerc has been testing extreme set-ups throughout over the last few rounds to try and help Ferrari get out of the hole they are in.
“No, I mean I think also coming into the weekend I knew that we needed more to get back to the level of McLaren and Red Bull.
“But I think the best thing we could do this weekend is to instead of keep experiencing and not maximising our weekend. It was very important for us to maximise this weekend, which honestly I think we did.
“The biggest problem now is that we don’t have the performance to do much better. So that’s where we’ll focus on in the development for the future.”
Asked how he was feeling in the car in the changeable conditions, Leclerc was feeling good in the car.
But the ultimate performance was not there compared to the top two teams concerning car pace at present.
“The confidence was there, just the performance wasn’t.”
