29/08/2025 20:00
Charles Leclerc has described Ferrari's performance on Friday at
the Dutch Grand Prix as a "wake-up call" after lowly positions.
During FP1, Leclerc placed only 14th fastest, ahead of team-mate
Lewis Hamilton in 15th, with positions being flipped as Hamilton
climbed to sixth and Leclerc eighth. The Monegasque was 0.096s
slower than Hamilton in the afternoon, but was still nearly a full
second slower than pace-setter Lando Norris. Adding a further
complication to Ferrari's weekend was the standout performance of
Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, who split the dominant
McLarens, finishing within a tenth of Norris. The Spanish racer
believes he could fight Ferrari in qualifying, with Leclerc
believing major work was needed to turn the Scuderia's fortunes
around heading into qualifying. "I would sum it up as a very, very,
very, very difficult Friday," Leclerc explained. "It was probably
the worst Friday of the season, which, right after the holiday, is
a little bit of a wake-up call. "We've had some difficult Fridays,
but now it is up to us to turn the situation around. But for sure,
it was not an easy day. "FP1 was extremely difficult, and FP2 was
slightly better, but we are still very far off where we want to be.
"McLaren is in a league of its own, and Aston Martin was a surprise
for us, but we will try to improve the cars." The article continues
below. Leclerc explains Ferrari problem When asked where exactly
his SF-25 machine was losing so much time, Leclerc identified two
corners in particular where Ferrari was weak, but did not name
them. I mean, we are losing basically 90% of the time. We lose in
two corners, and there's just something that our car cannot do at
the moment, and we are trying to find out why it's so concentrated
in two corners. Normally, that's never the case. So yeah, we'll
work in trying to find a solution for these "We are losing
basically 90% of the time in two corners, and there is just
something that our car cannot do at the moment," he said. "We are
trying to find out why it is so concentrated in two corners, as
that is never normally the case, so we will try to work to find a
solution. "I'm looking forward to trying to turn it around and try
to make a miracle [in qualifying], but it is not going to be an
easy weekend for us."
