During Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint Race, there was one side of the Ferrari garage who were celebrating, while the other side was struggling with pace. While Lewis Hamilton took Sprint pole and won the Sprint Race in Shanghai, his teammate, Charles Leclerc is still struggling to find pace in the SF-25.
Heading into the weekend of the Chinese Grand Prix, there was not much hope for Ferrari after their poor performance last weekend in Melbourne. However, they seemed to have turned things around for this weekend as they suddenly emerged as potential Championship contenders. Well, at least Hamilton’s side of the garage seems like a contender.
Charles Leclerc blames himself for the lack of pace in Shanghai
With Hamilton winning the Sprint Race, Leclerc only managed to finish 4th, behind George Russell in the Mercedes. He was also consistently slower than Hamilton during the Sprint Qualifying session on Friday. But why is this so?
After the race, Charles spoke to F1 TV where he took the blame for his struggles.
“I wouldn’t really blame the car because Lewis is doing a great job with it, so for me, it’s me, really,” Charles said.
“Until now, I haven’t been comfortable with the car as it is. I took a slightly different direction compared to Lewis in terms of setup, but I don’t think it’s all in there. I just really struggle on this track, historically, and there’s no exception this weekend, but it’s not an excuse. I need to react, and qualifying would be a good start to turn things around.”
Lewis Hamilton Delivers Sprint Masterclass At Chinese GP As McLaren Struggles with Tyre Wear
Although Charles has gone for a different setup than Lewis’, the Monegasque driver does not believe that this is the problem. He mentioned that he has struggled historically on this circuit. Ever since he came into F1, Leclerc has driven in this circuit a total of three times, out of which, one of them was with Sauber. With Suaber, he finished only P19, with Ferrari, he finished P4 in 2024 and P5 in 2019. Both these years, the car had the potential to finish on the podium.
But Leclerc cannot back down because of this. He needs to put in the time in the simulator and get a good understanding of the circuit. The qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix will be vital as overtaking has proven to be difficult around this circuit. So Charles will have one hour of qualifying to get his SF-25 to go as fast as possible around the Shanghai International Circuit.
Do you think Leclerc can recover and match Hamilton’s pace during qualifying? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
