Charles Leclerc casts Ferrari confusion amid Lewis Hamilton deficit admission

Charles Leclerc admits to struggling with the SF-26 in the Austrian Grand Prix, where he fell down the order after a positive qualifying session on Saturday.

Leclerc finished the race in eighth despite qualifying on the front row of the grid – just short of pole position, had George Russell not completed his final lap at the end of a chaotic Q3.

His performance at the Red Bull Ring only adds to his ongoing spate of bad luck and underperformance. Starting with a crash at his home race in Monaco, to crashing out of both qualifying and the race in Barcelona, it’s evident that the Ferrari driver is not at one with his car.

Speaking to the media, including Motorsport Week, after the Austrian GP, Leclerc said that the race had been “incredibly difficult” and that he had struggled a lot with low grip.

“It was just an incredibly difficult race, very very low grip overall, just struggled to have the car and the tyres especially in the right window, especially the rears, just missing a lot of rear grip.

“I mean still a lot of work to be done, I think I’ve been working very hard in the past weeks because there was always one reason or another that made me struggle on the Sunday or on the Saturday, but at the moment there’s always a reason why there’s a struggle and that probably means that I don’t really have a clear picture of what I want from this car and I’ve got to find that.”

Ferrari issues are ‘a bit of everything’ for Charles Leclerc

The Monegasque driver didn’t have a definite explanation as to the difference in performance between qualifying and the race. He said that on Saturday he was ‘happy’ with the car but it wasn’t right on Sunday, and there are a multitude of factors at play affecting the car’s performance.

“Well it’s, there’s a lot down to [understeer and oversteer], I think also car characteristics swings a lot the performance this year as well, because this weekend we see we’ve been a lot more on the back foot.

“Especially in the race, because in qualifying we weren’t too bad, but we’ve been less competitive as a whole, so yeah, a bit of everything, but probably car balance.”

Leclerc has now dropped behind reigning champion Lando Norris in the Driver’s Standings, sitting in sixth to teammate Hamilton’s third.

The Briton took his first race win for the Scuderia last time out in Barcelona, but Leclerc has not stood on the top step of the podium since the United States Grand Prix in 2024.