Charles Leclerc explains Ferrari STRUGGLES on race days

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc explains Ferrari STRUGGLES on race days

Charles Leclerc is refusing to place too much emphasis on his team's strong showing in Canada

Dan McCarthy

Friday 30 June 2023 09:57

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Charles Leclerc is refusing to get carried away with a strong race performance in Canada, and says the team need to show more consistency before they can be considered as challengers.

It has been another frustrating year for the Scuderia, and their wait for a title is certain to be prolonged with Red Bull dominating out at the front.

Last year saw their title charge fizzle out due to poor race day performance and this year they have barely registered in qualifying with Leclerc's pole in Azerbaijan one of the few positives.

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Canada two weeks ago may have marked the start of a turning point for Ferrari as Leclerc battled from tenth on the grid to finish fourth with team-mate Carlos Sainz just behind in fifth after starting 11th on the grid.

Leclerc was happy to see progress made but says it is not enough to bank on just yet.

"We need to be cautious with drawing conclusions too early," he told reporters.

"Canada was positive on the Sunday especially which was good to see but we need to confirm that and prove we can be consistently good on Sunday. It's something we were struggling with in the first part of the season.

Leclerc bemoans tyre degradation issues

Last season, Leclerc was a real star on Saturdays, grabbing nine pole positions. However, a mixture of bad luck and poor decision-making meant that was only converted into three race wins.

Big changes were made to Ferrari during the off-season including a new team boss in Fred Vasseur but, as of yet, the changes appear to have made little difference.

Leclerc thinks the car's poor performance on race days is down to the fact the car struggles badly with tyre degradation in comparison to their rivals.

"I think through the lap we are quite okay," he explained. "We can see that in qualifying when conditions are quite stable. There we're fine.

"Whenever we're in the race with tyre degradation especially, the car goes away a little bit and sometimes we end the race in a different place to where we started and that makes things more complicated for us."