“Disappointed but not surprised“: Charles Leclerc accepts a disconnect with his car just days after winning in Austin
Charles Leclerc described his qualifying performance in Mexico as disappointing, feeling disconnected from the car throughout the session. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, after qualifying, the Ferrari driver stated that he may have taken too many risks on his final lap.
Leclerc qualified fourth, approximately four-tenths of a second behind teammate Carlos Sainz, who took pole. He acknowledged struggling throughout practice and never fully feeling comfortable with the car. Pushing too hard, he exceeded track limits at Turn 10, leading to his lap time being deleted.
Known for his qualifying prowess, Leclerc was unable to extract the maximum performance from his car at the Mexican circuit. He identified it as one of the tracks, along with Monza, where he faces challenges with low grip and balance. Despite the setback, he remained optimistic about his race pace and believed he could make gains on Sunday.
Asked by Sportskeeda if it was disappointing result, Leclerc said:
“Yeah, disappointed, but not surprised. I was struggling and not feeling well since FP2 with the car. And yeah, that's the way it is. In Q3 the lap was coming very nicely until turn 10 where I lost the car. But I had to take those risks just because I didn't have the pace. So yeah, it's the way it is. I think before is not that bad, but of course disappointed.”
Asked what he needed from the car to maximize his potential, he added:
“Just grip and the feeling. Sometimes you like the balance, today I don't, yesterday I didn't either. I think it's probably not one of my strengths, the qualifying in very low grip tracks. I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying and in Monza and here I always struggle quite a lot with that. However, it's the way it is. The only thing that gives me some optimism is that I think I was the fastest guy yesterday in race simulations, which is a good thing. But starting from fourth I'm making my life more difficult.”
Charles Leclerc explains the art of qualifying at a low downforce circuit
Charles Leclerc believes that the key challenge to qualifying at low-downforce circuits is resisting the temptation to push too hard on a lap. The Ferrari driver acknowledged that pushing too much on his final lap in Mexico caused him to lose control of the car at Turn 10. Circuits like Monza and Mexico, with their low downforce setups, tend to have low grip levels, making it harder for drivers to optimize tire performance and balance.
Asked if he needed to rewire his approach to nail the art of qualifying at low downforce circuits, Leclerc said:
“Yes, I've got to think a lot more in order to finish a lap and try to contain a bit more my will to push extremely hard in those qualifying because it just doesn’t work out on those tracks. And yeah, today I tried to do that. It was working pretty fine in Q3. However, I lost the car in turn 10 and from that moment on, it was very difficult to finish a lap.”
Leclerc currently sits third in the drivers’ championship, just 22 points behind Lando Norris and 79 points off leader Max Verstappen. In the constructors’ standings, Ferrari is third, trailing Red Bull by a slim margin of eight points.
A strong result in Mexico could position Ferrari to challenge McLaren and turn the constructors’ battle into a three-way fight. The team’s recent resurgence has put both Red Bull and McLaren on alert, with both front-runners now facing increased pressure to fend off the advancing scarlet squad.