Leclerc, another difficult Sunday: “What a struggle with this engine, but the gap can be filled. Today, however, the pace wasn’t there”

Another negative Sunday From the near pole position yesterday to the sad eighth place today, more than 45 seconds away from the winner and last classified among the drivers of the four top teams. This Sunday was also one to forget for Charles Leclerc, who certainly shakes up his ranking after the two consecutive ‘zeros’ in Monaco and Barcelona, ​​but with just four points at the end of a GP which saw him as protagonist almost exclusively due to the overtaking suffered by teammate Lewis Hamilton and then by the various Antonelli, Verstappen, Norris and Piastri. A collapse that materialized lap after lap and which seems to have a very clear culprit: the Ferrari power unit, unsuitable to compete with the Mercedes and Red Bull engines. A comment on this point also came from Antonelli and Russell themselves, ‘intercepted’ by the cameras while they chatted in the back podium. Engine, but not only Speaking to the microphones of Sky Sport F1, Leclerc confirmed Ferrari’s lack of engine speed, but also warned that – at least at the Red Bull Ring – this was not the only deficient aspect in the performance of the SF-26s: “Can the gap be filled by the Mercedes-powered ones? Yes, it can be filled, but at the moment we are struggling a lot with the engine, in all the battles I had with the Red Bull team and with the Mercedes-powered teams there was little that could be done – observed Leclerc – but it’s not all in the engine: today the pace wasn’t there, particularly with me, but I think that even with the team we struggled more than in Barcelona, and I even more in these moments I just have to keep my head down, continue working and try to find the right place for this car since I still struggled today.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-29 01:37:00