Charles Leclerc sides with Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari verdict after Qatar sprint

Charles Leclerc agrees with Lewis Hamilton’s assessment that Ferrari’s car took a worrying step backwards overnight at the Qatar Grand Prix.

It was a miserable sprint race for both Ferrari drivers.

Starting from ninth on the grid, a scrappy opening lap saw Leclerc drop back to 13th in the order.

Leclerc ran wide as he struggled with the handling of his SF-25.

Hamilton elected to start from the pit lane after his SQ1 exit.

However, the seven-time world champion couldn’t make any progress from the back of the field, stuck in a DRS train.

After the sprint, Hamilton reported over team radio: “I don’t know how we made the car worse.”

Unlike Hamilton, Leclerc was unable to make car setup adjustments, having started from his original grid slot.

Despite keeping the same car setup as qualifying, Leclerc was perplexed by how difficult his Ferrari was to drive.

“It definitely did. I have no idea how that happened from qualifying to today,” Leclerc told Sky Sports.

“The feeling has changed completely to yesterday and I don’t really know from where it’s coming from. Definitely experience for tonight and see.

“I agree with Lewis that today was extremely difficult to not say worse than that. The first lap… I was struggling to keep the car on track and lost four, five positions, and then still lots of mistakes. It was extremely difficult to drive. I don’t quite understand what happened there.”

Leclerc feedback “more worrying”

Assessing Leclerc’s comments, former F1 strategist Bernie Collins believes his feedback will worry Ferrari, given there were minimal changes to his car since sprint qualifying.

“I think the most interesting thing there listening to both drivers is that we know Lewis changed his car. 

“He started from the pit lane so to hear him say ‘we made it worse today’ isn’t that much of a surprise because you know they changed something,” Collins explained.

“Leclerc didn’t start from the pit lane. He started from his position on the grid with the same setup he had yesterday, maybe with some front wing changes. It should be fundamentally the same car setup.

“What has changed? There’s extra fuel in the car. There’s a different front wing angle and tyre set. Just those things, how can the car be so much more undriveable today? I can understand Lewis’, but the Charles Leclerc one is a bit more worrying for Ferrari.”