The Ferrari has persistent weaknesses, explains Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc has secured the last two pole positions. After setting a surprising fastest time in Q3 in Austin, the Monegasque driver repeated the feat in Mexico by outpacing Max Verstappen by 0.097 seconds. The Dutchman achieved the 3rd fastest time. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, achieved a 4th place on the American grid and then started 2nd in Mexico.

However, nothing seemed to be won for Ferrari before the start of the qualifying sessions. The pace displayed during the practice sessions was decent, but Charles Leclerc had admitted not being optimistic for the qualifying sessions. “It would be a huge surprise if we were to secure pole position, but never say never,” he stated. “It’s a tricky track. It’s very difficult to put a clean lap together, but I have the feeling that this weekend, we are a bit too far off. We still have a lot of work to do.”

Ferrari could have hoped for more.

Despite Leclerc’s apprehension, the two Ferraris occupied the front row at the start of the Mexico Grand Prix. But in the race, things didn’t go as planned. Right from the start, Verstappen wedged himself between the two Italian cars and Sergio Perez collided with Charles Leclerc. Although his car didn’t lose pace, he found himself in second place after the first turn with a damaged car. At the finish, both drivers had dropped two places since the start. Sainz finished 4th and Leclerc on the last step of the podium. A very good result considering the improvements from Mercedes and the apprehension at the start from the Italian side.

Some regrets remain on the side of the driver sporting the No. 16. During the two starts, the car slipped. On the restart at the 36th lap, Leclerc came close to being caught off guard by Hamilton. Although he managed to keep the advantage at that moment, three laps later, the Briton managed to overtake him on the track. “At first, I thought I could do a really good job,” explained the Monegasque. “But then there was a red flag, the tires cooled down, we went out again, and the feeling just wasn’t the same. It’s a bit of a shame because before that, it was going really well, especially with the intermediate tires. But we’ll analyze it with the Hard tires to try and understand what went wrong in order to improve it in the future. In the short term, there are no miracle solutions, I think that every time we step slightly outside the optimal window, we lose too much time.”

The next weekend will be a sprint format. Ferrari will have less time to try out new settings as the park will be closed on Friday evening.