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Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc believes the Prancing Horse is simply lacking outright pace compared to their main rivals, despite the team consistently kicking off race weekends with encouraging speed.
While the Italian outfit's chassis is widely regarded as one of the finest on the grid, their power unit continues to trail behind the benchmarks set by Mercedes and Red Bull. At the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari introduced a new engine concept designed to work around turbocharger sizing. Opting for a smaller turbo helped eliminate lag and delivered superb low-speed drivability, but it came at the cost of top-end straight-line speed.
Consequently, a clear trend has emerged: Ferrari frequently shows strong pace in practice sessions, only to slip back once their competitors unleash higher engine modes—a pattern that has not gone unnoticed by Leclerc.
"I'm not sure we are genuinely that strong on Fridays. It's more down to the engine modes the other teams are running. When we get to qualifying, they have something extra in hand that we simply don't. We might look more competitive in FP1, but they are just holding back for Saturday," Leclerc explained.
"One of our major strengths as a team is that we hit the ground running with a well-balanced car from our very first run. The factory crew does an exceptional job on the simulator ahead of every race weekend. The correlation between our sim data and the track has been remarkably high, which allows us to start with a car I feel immediately confident and comfortable in.
"It really comes down to preparation. The car's peak potential is simply not on the level of our leading rivals. Right now, we are lagging behind in raw pace and outright performance," the Monegasque added.
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