Fourth in Budapest, Charles Leclerc does not hide his frustration with the very inconsistent behavior of his Ferrari, which he believes is incapable of delivering constant performance.
Read more Isack Hadjar frustrated despite his sixth place: «We could have aimed for the Ferraris»
Charles Leclerc harbored great ambitions after starting from the front row of the Hungarian Grand Prix. But from the very first meters, the Ferrari driver saw his hopes of victory vanish.
Victim of significant wheelspin at the start, the Monegasque found himself caught between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the first corner. Overtaken by the Red Bull driver, he quickly dropped to fifth place, before finally climbing back to fourth.
Leclerc believes everything was decided as soon as the lights went out.
“When I performed the start procedure, there was much less grip than I expected. I spun, then I found myself stuck between Lewis and Max at the first corner. We were fifth and it was then very difficult to come back.”
A Ferrari impossible to understand
Beyond the result, it is above all the behavior of the SF-26 that leaves Leclerc perplexed.
The Ferrari driver explains that the sensations behind the wheel varied enormously from one stint to another, including between two identical sets of tires.
“It’s not just our case, but for us, it’s particularly noticeable. The soft tire stint was correct, the first hard tire stint was good, then the second stint with the same hard tires was totally different. I had no feeling with the car anymore, without understanding what was wrong.”
Conversely, his last stint on soft tires gave him back confidence, but he was then too far behind to hope for a podium.
“On the last stint on soft tires, the sensations were good again, but we were out of sync with our strategy. It’s really difficult to understand.”
Read more Oscar Piastri devastated after his retirement in Hungary: «A black Sunday»
Performances opposite to expectations
Leclerc also highlights the contrast between Ferrari’s predictions and the results obtained in recent weeks.
The Scuderia proved very competitive on circuits where it feared it would struggle, before experiencing a more complicated weekend on a track that nevertheless seemed perfectly suited to its car.
“The strangest thing is that everything is happening in reverse of what we anticipated in the last three races. On circuits where we thought we would struggle, we finished first and second. And on the one where we thought we would be very strong, we only finished fourth and fifth.”
Ferrari is still looking for answers
For the Monegasque, this inconsistency illustrates the current difficulty in understanding how this generation of Formula 1 cars works.
He believes, however, that Ferrari must quickly find explanations if it wants to return to winning ways.
“This sums up this generation of cars well: they are complicated for everyone to understand. But we must succeed in understanding them better than our competitors. I will try to identify the origin of this inconsistency and understand why two identical sets of tires can offer such different behaviors. It’s really very strange.”
After a weekend where Ferrari was considered the favorite, this fourth place leaves a bitter taste for Leclerc, who hopes that the Scuderia will use the summer break to resolve these consistency issues.
Read more Lewis Hamilton believes he let victory slip away: «The penalties cost me dearly»