20/04/2025 11:30
Charles Leclerc has explained why Ferrari's fresh F1 upgrades have
failed to deliver the performance boost he expected. Leclerc
qualified fourth in Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, using
the new floor Ferrari first ran in Bahrain, with hopes for more
impact from the upgrade this weekend. Further new parts were added
to the SF-25 in Saudi, as Leclerc qualified fourth, 0.376s off
pole-sitter Max Verstappen and 0.263s slower than George Russell,
with whom he will share the second row. Reflecting on the
performance, Leclerc explained how he was "really not happy" with
Ferrari's performance level. "I'm not happy, I am really not
happy," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365. "I mean, I
finished P4 and I put everything out there, but for now, the
performance of the car is just not there. "I either have massive
oversteer or massive understeer, but the end result is that I don't
have enough grip to reproduce what the guys in front are doing.
"At the moment, I feel good in the car, I've found the sweet spot
of the car and matched my driving style, and in the last three
qualifying sessions, I've managed to maximise the potential of the
car - but the potential is just not yet at the level I want." When
asked by RacingNews365 if the upgrades introduced by the team were
not working as hoped, Leclerc indicated that they were, but that
other teams had made a similar-sized step, thus cancelling out
Ferrari's gains. "Stun is maybe not the right word, but the gap is
that which we'd expect from the beginning of the season, but I am
disappointed here because we had some upgrades which should have
helped for sure. "But the gap seems to be pretty similar to before,
and I feel like the others have done as much of a step, which means
the gap hasn't really changed."
