Charles Leclerc is trying to understand the drop in performance of his Ferrari between the sprint and the race in Miami. The Monegasque is requesting a thorough analysis after a frustrating Sunday.
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Charles Leclerc left Miami with mixed feelings, marked by a clear difference in competitiveness between the sprint and the main race. While he had shown a good level on Saturday, the situation quickly deteriorated on Sunday at the wheel of his Ferrari.
The Monegasque driver, initially well positioned in the leading pack, gradually lost ground over the laps. After finishing sixth on the track — before being demoted following a post-race penalty — he mainly retained a feeling of confusion regarding the pace of his car.
A striking contrast between sprint and Grand Prix
Leclerc had nevertheless delivered a solid performance during the sprint race held on the Miami circuit, finishing on the podium. This performance promised a promising weekend for the Scuderia.
But the Grand Prix the next day told a very different story. Quickly engaged in an intense battle for the top positions with Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris, the pace of the Ferrari began to collapse. The Monegasque was then gradually overtaken by his pursuers, notably Oscar Piastri and George Russell.
The latter played a key role in the strategy, by pitting early and forcing Ferrari to react immediately. From that moment on, Leclerc’s race lost coherence and overall performance.
Tire degradation at the heart of the difficulties
Analyzing his race, Leclerc highlighted a tire management problem, particularly with the medium tires. He explained: “On the medium, we were not strong, we degraded a lot.”
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Even on the hard tires, the feel was not immediately positive, as he specified: “On the hard, it was not good at the start, then it improved a bit, but never at the sprint level.”
This inability to maintain a consistent pace prevented Ferrari from fighting for the win, despite a good potential shown the day before.
A clear demand for explanations at Ferrari
Frustrated by this performance gap, Leclerc now calls on his team to deeply analyze the weekend’s data to understand the reasons for this sudden drop in competitiveness.
He insists on the need to learn lessons: “We need to analyze this. We lost a lot of performance compared to Saturday, and I want to understand exactly what happened.”
A clear message addressed to Ferrari, which will have to quickly identify the origin of this lack of consistency to prevent the situation from recurring in the upcoming championship races.
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