Charles Leclerc left 'frustrated' as recurring Ferrari limitation hampers Austrian GP

Charles Leclerc was left frustrated by having to lift and coast as Ferrari continued to manage a major limitation with their 2025 F1 car at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Ferrari enjoyed an encouraging weekend in Austria as the second-fastest team behind McLaren.

Leclerc scored his fourth podium of the season, finishing third behind McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

While Leclerc finished nearly 20 seconds off the lead, it was a stronger weekend for the Scuderia.

However, Ferrari’s true potential is still masked by the fact that both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are forced to manage their pace.

Ferrari told their drivers to lift and coast to ensure the plank underneath their car doesn’t become too worn, particularly on high fuel.

This has been an ongoing issue throughout the season, and it has hampered their performance since the start of the season, particularly after their double DSQ at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Speaking in the FIA press conference, Leclerc admitted Ferrari “paid the price” in the first stint of the race.

“There weren’t very many key moments on my side,” Leclerc said. “Obviously, the start, I wish I had done a bit of a better job to be completely alongside Lando. Maybe that would have changed a little bit for three or four laps.

“I don’t think we had the pace to stay there in front. Basically, from Turn 1 one to the end, it was a very boring race. I was on my own, just trying to manage quite a few issues that we had on our side. Let’s not call them issues, but we’ve got to do some management in the situation we’re in at the moment. I won’t go into the detail, but the lift and coast was a little bit frustrating.

”We paid a bit of the price for it on the first stint, but then the second and last stint were a bit more positive, which was good. But there weren’t many key moments apart from the start.”

Leclerc’s positive upgrade verdict

Ferrari introduced a revised floor for this weekend in Austria.

Leclerc is adamant the new floor had a positive impact and aided his pursuit of the podium.

“They are definitely a step forward. Yes. And I think it helped us to be on the podium today,” he added. “The team has done an incredible job at pushing to try and get them as early as possible.

“I know that they are still pushing extremely hard to have other upgrades as soon as possible, which I hope will make another difference and will help us to be a bit closer to McLaren, to Red Bull in their good days, or to Mercedes even in their good days.

“So, yeah, we are pushing hard, and I hope that we see the result as soon as possible.”