‘Something I’m not used to’ - Charles Leclerc wants to fix recent F1 weakness

Charles Leclerc has conceded he needs to improve his qualifying displays after recovering to finish fourth at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Leclerc was out-qualified by teammate Carlos Sainz for a second consecutive race.

Throughout his career, qualifying has been a strength of Leclerc’s, with many pundits describing him as the ‘fastest driver in F1’ due to his blistering one-lap pace.

However, below par performances in qualifying recently has meant he’s missed out on a potential victory in Australia and now podium in Japan.

Speaking after the race at Suzuka on Sunday, Leclerc felt he couldn’t have done much more to better his P4 result, but cited the need for a better turn of speed on Saturdays.

"I don't think there was anything better to do today," he said. "But finally today, I'm very happy.

"I don't think there was anything we could have done better, the pace was really good, tyre management was really good, communication was really good. However, as a driver, you always have to look at the negative over the whole weekend.

"And whether it's in Australia or here, race pace has not been a problem. It's my qualifying pace, which is not something that I've not been very used to in my career to be working on my qualifying pace, because normally it's pretty good on the Saturday.

"However, two races now in a row, I've been struggling to put the tyres in the right window. This is definitely my main focus now going into Shanghai to try and re-find the right window of the tyres, and for me to put them more consistently inside that window."

Leclerc will have two qualifying sessions to turn this trend around when F1 heads to China later this month for a sprint weekend.

Explaining his recent qualifying troubles, Leclerc added:  "My laps weren't that bad yesterday, the lap that I've done was actually really good. But the grip that was available from the tyre was just not there.

"And this is because I do a bad job on the lap before, which is very frustrating because you've finished a lap and you're happy, but actually you're nowhere. So I've got to focus on that.

"It's very fine, like very little differences. However, I'm confident that by analysing the data, we've got a week before Shanghai, whenever I focus on something I'm quite good. I'm not too concerned, but I need to do this step forward for Shanghai."