Ferrari’s mood was as gloomy as the weather after a disappointing Friday at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel could only manage fourth and fifth fastest with their final soft tyre run in second practice, potentially ending the Monegasque’s four-race pole streak if qualifying is cancelled again on Sunday.
And Leclerc revealed afterwards that though it wasn’t a perfect day, there may not be enough improvement in the car to take on Mercedes.
“Not absolutely everything, but I think we made the most out of our day, which was the most important,” he said on Ferrari had completed their program.
“It seems we are lacking pace this weekend, which is a bit of a surprise because at the end we were very strong in the last four races.
“We expected to be quite good here, but it’s less this case. We will be working to prepare at its best for qualifying on Sunday.
“The balance is not that bad, we are just lacking speed. There’s a little bit in driving too, but I expect it to be hard to catch Mercedes in front.”
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Teammate Vettel was a little more upbeat, as traffic hampered him on his fastest lap, but even the German accepted there was a lot of pace to find if Mercedes is to be caught.
“It was not as bad as maybe you think,” he said. “I think we were quite OK, but just lacking overall pace.
“I think Mercedes is very comfortable straight from this morning, so not a surprise they were able to show that again in FP2.
“For us, I think we have a bit of room to improve. It wasn’t an ideal session, maybe using our tyres not the way we could have.
“But overall, I think we’ll see what we find tomorrow. We’ll stay indoors and see what happens on Sunday.”