Leclerc dissatisfied: 'If it had been a Red Bull, but it was a Mercedes'

Despite his pole position and a strong start, Leclerc was ultimately not on the podium, although he was subsequently promoted to third because of George Russell's disqualification. GPblog asked the current number three in the championship about the cause of Ferrari's disappointing pace.

Leclerc: 'Ferrari simply lacks pace'

"Yeah, well, I mean, it's very simple. What happened is that we are just not fast enough. I felt like we were the fourth fastest car today. McLaren and Red Bull were expected. Mercedes were faster than expected. On a normal race, dry track, it's very difficult to keep them behind on a track like this. We did a good job of keeping Max [Verstappen] and Lando [Norris] behind at the end, but fourth was the best we could hope for today."

The fact that he managed to keep Verstappen and Lando Norris behind him somewhat surprised the 26-year-old Monegasque. "I personally thought that McLaren had a huge advantage of pace for this weekend, which I saw a little bit less today. I mean, they were still the fastest probably with Red Bull and Mercedes today, but I thought McLaren had the edge. It's good to see that everybody's so close, but unfortunately, we are still the fourth fastest team, and the top three keep changing, but we are consistently behind them or on a par with Mercedes. We just need more pace," he says.

Leclerc stresses: work to do for Ferrari

"It is good to see that everyone is so close, but unfortunately we are still the fourth fastest team. The top three keeps changing, but we are constantly behind or on par with Mercedes. We just need more pace," the Ferrari driver added.

In this case, he does not necessarily see the fact that Leclerc was able to stay in contention throughout the race as a positive aspect of his weekend: "It wasn't. If it was a Red Bull in front, then I think it would have been a positive weekend. But now it was a Mercedes, which we thought we were on a par with them. And they were they had the edge on us. So, yeah, I don't consider this result a very positive one."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy