Charles Leclerc confused by ‘snappy’ and ‘unpredictable’ Ferrari at Singapore GP

Charles Leclerc was left perplexed by his continued struggles at the Singapore Grand Prix, describing his Ferrari as ‘snappy’ and ‘unpredictable’ throughout qualifying.

Leclerc was out-qualified by Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton for just the fifth time this season.

It didn’t come as a surprise, with Hamilton looking the stronger of the two Ferraris throughout practice.

Leclerc made a mistake on his final lap, suffering a snap of oversteer through the final corner.

Leclerc has often thrived at street circuits over the years, notably in Azerbaijan.

However, he also struggled for pace in Baku.

Reflecting on qualifying at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Leclerc admitted that it was “tough” to find any grip.

“Everything but starting with the grip. The grip has been very tough to find,” Leclerc told Sky Sports.

“Really, really struggling to find the grip on this track which is a shame as normally Baku and here are two of my favourite tracks of the season, two tracks I’m strong at but I’ve never found the feeling.

“A lot of understeer in the car but the car is very snappy and unpredictable. I know it’s not my strength whenever there’s understeer in the car and this weekend has been the case from FP2 to qualifying.

“We don’t really find any ways out without making the car even more unpredictable which isn’t what you want in a city track. It’s been a very very tough weekend.”

Leclerc hopes struggles are ‘circuit specific’

Up until this year, Leclerc had been unbeaten in Azerbaijan qualifying since 2019.

He crashed out in Q3 and struggled in the race, losing out to teammate Hamilton late on.

Singapore is another circuit where Leclerc has performed well over the years, but he was out-paced by Hamilton throughout the weekend.

Currently, Leclerc has no explanation for his struggles and hopes they are “circuit specific”.

“I hope it’s circuit specific but for now I don’t have the explanation as it’s not like we changed the car massively in the last two races but for some reason the feeling isn’t good in the last two races,” Leclerc added.

“We will look back and try to understand where did it start going wrong.”