'Always a reason I struggle' - Charles Leclerc mystified by Ferrari F1 slump

Charles Leclerc was left mystified by his performance at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, conceding there is 'always a reason I struggle'. 

Leclerc has been on a difficult run of form, with retirements in Monaco and Barcelona, both of which followed crashes in qualifying. 

But he looked to have turned this around on Saturday, as he qualified his Ferrari on the front row of the grid alongside eventual race-winner George Russell. 

However, he was unable to turn his Saturday pace into meaningful points, as he gathered just four for finishing in eighth place, and a lap down on the leaders.

Asked by Crash.net about his continuing difficulties, Leclerc said: "It was just an incredibly difficult race. Very, very low grip overall. I just struggled to have the car and the tyres, especially, in the right window, especially the rears, just missing a lot of rear grip.

"But yeah, still a lot of work to be done. I think I've been working very hard in the past weeks because there was always one reason or another that made me struggle on the Sunday or on the Saturday.

"But at the moment, there's always a reason why there's a struggle, and that probably means that I don't really have a clear picture of what I want from this car, and yeah, I've got to find that."

Reflecting "in hindsight" that his car was better suited to single-lap pace, Leclerc was unsure why things had changed so much overnight.

He added: "It's always a bit of a bet, but it's a feeling. I thought that was the right direction. Yesterday, I was quite happy with the car, but it wasn't the right direction today."

Asked if the problems were a matter of oversteer and understeer, or whether there was something more sinister behind his problems, Leclerc said:  "There's a lot down to that. 

"I think also car characteristics swing a lot the performance this year as well, because this weekend we've been a lot more on the back foot. I mean, especially in the race, because in quali, we weren't too bad. 

"But we've been less competitive as a whole. So yeah, a bit of everything, but probably car balance."