29/06/2025 08:50
Charles Leclerc has vowed to make McLaren's "life as tough as
possible" in the Austrian Grand Prix after splitting them in
qualifying. Leclerc managed to get ahead of Oscar Piastri on the
Spielberg grid, but was over half-a-second behind Lando Norris who
achieved pole with the widest margin of the season. Running fresh
upgrades, Leclerc believes that the Scuderia's already strong race
pace could prove beneficial, given it has often struggled on
Saturdays over one lap compared to race distances. It was this he
is hoping will enable Ferrari to put a challenge up to McLaren as
it looks to regain the second place in the constructors' it lost to
Mercedes in Canada. "The upgrades definitely helped us, but how
much, it is difficult to know," Leclerc told Sky Sports F1. "But
when you see how tight the margins are, apart from Lando, it
definitely helped us to get the front row. "We shall be proud of
the work done, but we did a great job, we've worked well and I am
looking forward to the race because most of the time, our race car
is better than our qualifying car. "The gap is very big, but with
tyre management, we will have a strong car but whether that will be
as strong as McLaren, I don't know, but I'll do absolutely
everything to make the McLarens life as tough as possible."
