Charles Leclerc knows he is considered a “very fast driver in qualifying” but feels this area of his game is causing problems.
At Suzuka on Saturday, Leclerc remained perplexed as he remained eighth on the grid, but Ferrari's predicted race pace will see Leclerc chase Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz and fight for a fourth-place finish. It shined inside.
Charles Leclerc warns that he will “get better soon” after problems were discovered in qualifying
Leclerc described his pace and one-stop strategy at Suzuka as “excellent”, but the impact was limited by his struggles in qualifying, and Leclerc said he must improve his game to address this weakness. The focus was on outlaps as an area.
“I think as a driver you always have to take a step back and look at the whole weekend,” he said on Sky F1 after the Japanese Grand Prix.
“There's one thing we could have done better, and that's the way we prepared the tires for the qualifying lap. Like I said yesterday, I was happy with the lap, but we didn't have enough grip.” And this mainly comes from the previous lap trying to get the tire into the correct window.
“And from that moment on, we will be in a very difficult situation for the rest of the weekend, because we can't do much more if we start in eighth place.
“We had a great strategy, great tire management and great pace, but starting eighth is not enough.
“I haven't had to focus too much on qualifying pace in my career, because that's usually one of my strengths. But in Australia, and here, this is where I've been struggling. So that's what I'm going to focus on.''However, I usually improve quickly when I work on something, so I'm confident that I can improve quickly.
“I think I've been told that I'm always a very fast driver, not so much in races, but in qualifying.
“I don't think we're doing anything crazy different this year. We just have a better car in the race, a car with much better tires.”
“We've been working on it and I think we understand the direction we need to go with the car to make it easier in the races. So I think we'll see progress this year.
“But I don't think this has anything to do with my struggles in the last two qualifyings as this shouldn't have a negative impact on my qualifying performance. It's just who I am and how I get the tire temperature up on my out lap. So I’m going to look into this and try to figure out how we can do it better.”
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Leclerc has secured a seat as a Ferrari driver for next season. Sainz, who maintained a 100 per cent F1 podium record at Suzuka in 2024, knows his spot will go to Lewis Hamilton next year, but Sainz outperformed Leclerc in this early race. seasonal stages.
Leclerc congratulated his teammates on that, but reiterated that any weaknesses can be fixed quickly.
“Carlos was always strong,” Leclerc said. “I think in one race he got a little stronger and in one race I got a little stronger. He got two races and got a little stronger.
“And congratulations to him and he did a great job.
“And like I said, it's very clear to me where I need to work. Mostly qualifying. And in the race, Australia also has a different strategy so it's very clear to me It's difficult, but there's no doubt that we have pace in the race.
“We just have to put everything together in qualifying, but again, I'm aware of that and I'm going to work on it. When you work on something, you get better quickly.”
In Australia, Max Verstappen's DNF opened the door to Sainz's impressive victory, but in Japan normal service was resumed and Verstappen headed Red Bull 1-2 from teammate Sergio Perez, who has now finished the season This was the third result.
Leclerc admits that Red Bull is out of his reach for now, but he has not ruled out the possibility of a title challenge against Verstappen and Red Bull given the upcoming development war.
“Right now they are too far ahead,” Leclerc said of Red Bull. “But we've done a really good job of maximizing every point since the beginning of the season.
“And once we get the upgrades, maybe we'll be able to challenge them, and maybe that's when we can put more pressure on them and hopefully take more points from them. It's going to be a moment where we can do it, and maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised to be competing against them for the Constructors' World Championship at the end of the year.
“But realistically, I think that's a bit too optimistic right now. But we're not going to give up and we're going to continue to focus on ourselves and maximize the points as we did at the beginning of the season. is”
Red Bull's lead over Ferrari in the constructors' championship stands at 21 points heading into the fifth round of the 2024 F1 campaign in China.
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