Ferrari is reportedly struggling with the vehicle, according to Charles Leclerc

Posted : 09 May 2023

Ferrari is reportedly "struggling like crazy" this year with a car they don't comprehend, according to Charles Leclerc.

In Sunday's Miami Grand Prix, Leclerc came in eighth, while colleague Carlos Sainz slid from third on the grid to fifth.

"We have a car that is so incredibly difficult to be on the limit. We are very, very far away," said Leclerc.

"I struggle to find an explanation as to why we are so far away in the race and so close in qualifying."

Leclerc had the one-lap pace to start the race on the front row in Miami but crashed in qualifying. On race day the Ferrari exhibited its usual lack of pace.

"We are competitive in qualifying but once we come to race day we are struggling like crazy," Leclerc, 25, said.

"The window of our car is so narrow and whenever you get a little bit out it has huge consequences on the balance.

"It's from one corner to the other and even in one corner sometimes you can have huge understeer which goes to huge oversteer and this is not ideal to have confidence in the car."

He said: "We have a lot of work to do. We need to find something. We have been struggling in the race since a little time now and we need to come up with some issues."

He and teammate Sainz claimed that the vehicle was behaving differently on various tyre types, and team manager Frederic Vasseur said that it varied for every driver.

"With Charles we were much more performant on the hard (tyre), and with Carlos much more performant on the medium," Vasseur said. "And from one lap to the other we were a bit inconsistent."

Leclerc said: "It's always an unknown whether the car is going to react well, whether the tyres are going to be in the right window.

"This is just very difficult also as a driver to gain the confidence and to adapt your driving because you get from one set to the other and the car is completely in a different window."

Prior to their season collapsing due to a string of race-management and strategy mistakes, Leclerc was Red Bull driver Max Verstappen's main rival for the 2017 world championship.

Due to those errors, Mattia Binotto, the former team principal, lost his position during the winter.

Ferrari began this season hoping to challenge Red Bull for the championship once more, but after five races, they are in fourth place, also behind Aston Martin and Mercedes in the constructors' standings.

In Miami, a new floor was installed, although it had little impact on the competitiveness of the car. For the following race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on May 19–21, the first of three events held over successive weekends, more improvements are planned.

Ferrari is reportedly struggling with the vehicle, according to Charles Leclerc

ADD A COMMENT :

Hot Topics