Charles Leclerc has cast doubt on Ferrari's ability to fight at the sharp end of Formula 1 qualifying after the Scuderia locked out the third row at Zandvoort.
Lewis Hamilton set a late effort on Saturday to lift himself from ninth to fifth on the grid, pushing teammate Leclerc down to sixth after the Monegasque had finished second in the earlier sprint race.
Despite strong pace shown across the weekend, Charles Leclerc surprisingly questioned Ferrari's single-lap potential.
"I don't think it's down to changes in the car [between sessions]," said Leclerc. "Speaking a little bit with Lando [Norris] and George [Russell], I felt like yesterday they didn't do everything perfect, or the car didn't feel quite right, whereas for me, the car felt quite good yesterday."
"So I knew maybe we had a bit less margin compared to them. And then today we made some mistakes in changing power modes from Q2 to Q3. That put me off a little bit with the feeling I had with the car, and we'll have to look into it. But I don't think the potential for pole position was there anyway."
Leclerc's time was within four-tenths of pole-sitter Norris, but he had finished the sprint just 1.3s behind Russell. Despite his lack of confidence in qualifying, Leclerc is far more optimistic about race pace.
"There's definitely a tendency where we seem to be faster in the race than in qualifying," he said. "Most of the time, qualifying is a bit more of a struggle. Yesterday was an exception. But otherwise, we always seem to be on the back foot. So we've got to work on that."
"It's not black and white, and it's not as easy as taking a bit from the race and putting it into qualifying. We're trying to make the car as fast as possible, but for the characteristics we have, it works better in the race. I prefer that way, but on a track like this, it doesn't help."
Baca Juga
Lewis Hamilton optimistis menjelang GP Belanda. Start P5, strategi ban jadi kunci. Ferrari siap bersaing dengan pengelolaan ban yang lebih baik.
Lewis Hamilton optimistis di GP Belanda meski kualifikasi sulit. Ferrari bangun kepercayaan diri 'brick by brick' hadapi balapan. Simak analisisnya.
Alisha Palmowski menang Feature Race F1 Academy GP Belanda 2026 di Zandvoort, mengalahkan Alba Larsen dan Nina Gademan. Simak hasil lengkapnya!
Lanjutkan dengan Google
Diskusi & Komentar (0)
Mari Bergabung dalam Diskusi!
Masuk dengan mudah untuk mulai memberikan komentar, membalas, dan berinteraksi dengan pembaca lainnya.
Komentar Terbaru
Belum ada komentar. Jadilah yang pertama!