While hopes were low, Charles Leclerc says Ferrari was “not even close” to where they expected in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Last year, the Monegasque clinched pole at the Red Bull Ring with a 1m03.003s, on Saturday he was almost a second slower as he barely broke the 1m04s barrier to clinch seventh on the grid.
And that was arguably a salvaged P7, after Leclerc only just made Q3 on the cut line in P10, while teammate Sebastian Vettel didn’t in 11th.
“Unfortunately this is where we are at the moment, so we need to work and start building a better car for the future,” he said, after being beaten by a McLaren and a Racing Point.
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“We cannot get demoralised by today’s result but today’s result is not what we were expecting, we’re not even close to where we expected to be.
“But we have to keep on working as a team, to try and find improvements in every single detail, as that can make a big difference, seeing how closely packed we all are.”
An upgrade for the SF1000 is due in Hungary later this month, when Ferrari will take a new direction with the car’s aerodynamics.
For now though, Leclerc is simply hoping to limit the damage.
“It’s tomorrow that we can score points. We’re not expecting miracles, they won’t come for sure, but we’ll do the best we can with what we have and continue to work the best we can for the coming races,” he said.
“There’s the possibility to do better than today but the Mercedes is out of our reach. We’ll give it our all, as drivers and as a team, and we’ll try to get as far up the order as possible.”
