Leclerc warns of ‘no quick fix’ as Ferrari faces F1 ‘reality’

Charles Leclerc feels there are “no quick fixes” to Ferrari’s slump in F1 form after being nearly a second off the pace in Dutch Grand Prix qualifying.

Leclerc is the lead Ferrari on the grid in sixth place, but his effort of 1:10.582s was nine-tenths slower than the pole-time of McLaren’s Lando Norris – a 1:09.673s.

Ferrari’s form has dipped following a strong start to the season, with only two podiums in the six races since a one-three in Monaco as the SF-24 battles porpoising problems brought about by an upgrade in Spain.

It has slipped behind both McLaren and Mercedes in the pecking order, but retains third in the standings by 79 points over Mercedes. 

Despite the apparent lack of a quick fix, the Monegasque was also confident that Ferrari would be able to turn its performance around quickly.

“The lap was good, and we were nine-tenths off,” Leclerc told media including RacingNews365.

“Unfortunately, on such a short track, it is a lot, it is too much, but as a team, we are aware of that and we are lacking performance.

“We are working flat out, and unfortunately, I have repeated myself too much in the last few months, but that is the reality we are in at the moment. 

“We are doing absolutely everything to close that gap as soon as possible, which hopefully the upgrade will bring to the car to help us close the gap.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the quick fix that we had to last year’s issues so it will take a bit more time, however, it shouldn’t take too long either.”

Know how to react

At the 2023 Dutch GP, Ferrari sacrificed practice running to work through settings and set-ups on the car in a bid to understand its problems. 

This had some benefit as Carlos Sainz – who starts 11th – grabbed pole at Monza and denied Red Bull a clean-sweep of wins with his victory in Singapore.

Given the difficult times he has faced during his time with the team, Leclerc is sure that this knowledge can now be drawn upon.

“Last year, we learned a huge amount at Zandvoort and we compromised it for the rest of the season, this is the process we went through four or five races ago and it helped us to grow and understand a lot about the car,” he said.

“I’ve been through difficult times with the team and this is unfortunately another one, but I think we now know how to react.

“I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I am optimistic for the future because we know how to work – there is no big panic inside the team.

“We are definitely aware of the situation, but we are still working in a very methodological way and that will help us for the future.”