Leclerc sees Hamilton outperforming the car: 'We are missing too much'
F1 News
Ferrari's pace in the Chinese Grand Prix was a good ding for the team in light of their F1 hopes, albeit marred by their double disqualification from the Sunday race. However, Charles Leclerc claims teammate Lewis Hamilton's pole in the sprint was an outlier result and urges the Scuderia to pick up their one lap pace to take the fight to McLaren.
Where does Leclerc believe Ferrari's main weakness lie, compared to McLaren? "The problem is that we are missing too much in qualifying pace," said the Monegasque to media following the Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.
But what of Hamilton's pole on Friday afternoon ahead of the short 19 lap race? "Again, Lewis did a really, really good job on the sprint quali, but I think he outperformed, a little bit, the car."
'Ferrari's one lap pace needs to improve, if not, game over'
According to the driver of the #16 car, Ferrari showed their true qualifying colours during the qualifying session for the Grand Prix on Sunday. "And then in Qualy we saw our real performance and I think that's where we stand in the short run."
Not ideal, particularly since Ferrari are looking to challenge McLaren in both championships. "If we keep doing that, it's going to be very difficult for us to win races because McLaren are much faster on short runs and I would say similar to us on long runs."
Leclerc then has a warning for Ferrari. "If we start three or four positions behind, it's game over. So we've got to improve our short run," concluded the Monegasque.