F1 | Leclerc: “We are slow, it is difficult to do something special”

Only ninth on the timesheets, but that’s not what worries Charles Leclerc. As he had hypothesized on the eve, the Zandvoort stage does not seem to be friendly to Ferrari, a bit like what was already seen last year, so much so that the Monegasque himself believes it will be difficult to try to invent something special to turn the weekend around.

If Ferrari had already previously accused a certain delay from McLaren and Red Bull, the Dutch track takes up some points that have already been seen other times during the championship have seen the SF-24 show signs of difficulty more than other single-seaters. The nature of the very long high-load curves, with medium-high speed sections where support and stability are needed, especially where great precision is needed having to brake during the rotation phase, has re-presented the limits of the Maranello project while waiting for updates that should arrive in the next appointments.

The innovations brought to the last Grands Prix have helped solve some problems that arose with the package that debuted in Barcelona, ​​but they have not solved the endemic critical issues of the SF-24. For this reason, in Zandvoort, where McLaren showed up with big innovations while Mercedes tested those that had been temporarily discarded in Spa, it was a difficult day, as admitted by Leclerc.

“I would say it was tough, as expected, because unfortunately we don’t have the pace of those in front of us. I think it’s better than what the timesheet says, but we’re not yet able to fight for the win. So there’s still a lot of work to do. That’s what we’re doing, but I hope it bears fruit,” said the Monegasque, who lost a lot of time during his lap, especially in the second sector, between turns 7, 8, 9 and 10, precisely those combinations where you have to work on the support and steering to find the time.

At the moment, given the large gap from the top that reaches almost seven and a half tenths, according to the Monegasque driver it is difficult to think of being able to do something special, with one of his “magic” moves in qualifying that could give an unexpected result. The hope is to be able to at least get closer to close the gap a bit but, if the Maranello team were to fail, Ferrari knows that at that point it could really turn into a defensive Grand Prix.

“I will try to do something special in qualifying, but at the moment we have a bit too big a gap to do anything special. If we can get back to within two 3/10s, maybe there would be something to do. Otherwise, I expect a difficult weekend for us,” Leclerc added.