Leclerc finished 11th at Spanish Grand Prix after starting from pit lane, while Carlos Sainz dropped from second on grid to fifth; F1 returns in Canada from June 16-18 with all sessions live on Sky Sports F1, including race from 5.30pm on Sunday June 18
Monday 5 June 2023 00:19, UK
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari are "doing something wrong" after a torrid weekend saw him finish outside the points at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Monegasque made a shock early exit from Qualifying on Saturday as he could only manage 19th, before making overnight changes to his car that resulted in a pit lane start, despite Ferrari having found nothing to be mechanically wrong with his SF-23.
While Leclerc had a slightly improved Sunday, he didn't produce enough pace to make it into the points, finishing 11th as he failed to get past Alpine's Pierre Gasly in the closing stages.
"I don't understand what we are doing wrong but we are doing something wrong," Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.
"I went from a first hard (tyre), to a second hard in the last stint, did the same thing and the car is behaving in a completely different way."
After mounting a strong challenge to Verstappen during the first half of last season, Ferrari have been unable to reproduce the type of pace that made Leclerc a genuine title contender.
The extent of their issues was highlighted by the arrival of new sidepods on the car in Barcelona, with the team's uncertainty over their direction evident in the fact they ran both the old and new configurations in practice on Friday.
"We have to understand and work but it's been a few races now where we are struggling with the conditions or having a really peaky car and today is no better," Leclerc added.
Having suffered two retirements in the first three races of the season, Leclerc's scoreless outing in Spain leaves him seventh in the drivers' standings, 128 points back from Verstappen, who claimed his fifth win of the campaign on Sunday.
While Leclerc said his car felt improved from Saturday, his confusion over what was causing inconsistency in his performance typified Ferrari's strange start to the season.
"It did (feel better), but the limitations were the opposite," he said. "Yesterday I could not drive, I had a rear that was super loose and strange. We will analyse all of this at the factory. Today was mostly the front.
"The second and third stints were quite a bit better. The first stint was really bad but I think that was more tyre related.
"I feel like all weekend we have been speaking with drivers and we are struggling. It's such a tiny window and on this track it seems to be more sensitive than others. We need to be on top of those things."
Leclerc's Saturday struggles were made more bizarre by the fact his team-mate Carlos Sainz secured a front-row start alongside pole-sitter Verstappen at his home race.
However, Sainz didn't have the race pace to match his Qualifying performance, and was comfortably cleared by both Mercedes cars and Red Bull's Sergio Perez, ultimately finishing fifth.
Sainz believes that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was a testing location for Ferrari to bring their upgrades, with the track particularly tough on tyres.
"Honestly, I just spent the whole race managing tyres because we know we are very hard on them and with this high degradation circuit, I just couldn't push," Sainz said.
"We know it's a weakness of our car and coming to a high degradation circuit and a two-stop race, we were just managing the whole way trying to make it to the target laps of the stints and still falling short in a few of them.
"The weaknesses of our car are coming alive on a circuit like this with the high-speed corners and how hard we are on tyres. But it also shows that yesterday we must have done a pretty good lap.
"I think today was again, a bit back to where the car is at the moment in race pace, and yeah, probably this sort of track is not great for us."
Ferrari's struggles were emphasised by a massively improved display from Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton taking second and George Russell third in the updated W14.
"We have identified our weaknesses and know where we are lacking," Sainz said. "The feedback is there and intention is there.
"We just need time, to keep trying, keep bringing things to improve the package. Mercedes today proved they have done a good step and it's a good reference.
"We will try our best, I see the team is united, the team is pushing flat out back at Maranello."
F1 returns in Canada from June 16-18 with all sessions live on Sky Sports F1, including race coverage from 5.30pm on Sunday June 18
