Leclerc: Ferrari F1 form “hurts even more” on home soil at Monza

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s poor Formula 1 form “hurts even more” given that it is struggling at the team’s home race in Italy.
Leclerc: Ferrari F1 form “hurts even more” on home soil at Monza

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s poor Formula 1 form “hurts even more” given that it is struggling at the team’s home race in Italy.

Ferrari endured another difficult qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix with Leclerc set to start 13th, while Sebastian Vettel could only manage 17th overall.

Reflecting on his Q2 exit, Leclerc admits Ferrari expected to struggle but says it still ‘hurts’ as the team races on home soil this weekend.

“Well at the end we expected it a little bit coming into the weekend,” Leclerc said. “We know that Spa and here are probably the two worst tracks for us, another one a little bit later in the year. It’s like this, once you do a good lap and you do P13 it doesn’t feel good. For now, it’s like this and I need to extract the maximum out of the car in the situation that we are in and that’s what I try to do.

“It hurts even more once it’s at home. It’s the reality at the moment unfortunately and it’s like this. We need to work and hopefully from Mugello, which is still home for Ferrari, hopefully will be a bit better.”

With Spa and Monza requiring a low downforce configuration, Leclerc is confident Ferrari’s form will improve at other venues where more downforce is required.

“Well yes I hope that from next race onwards we will see a light at the end of the tunnel because for now that is two tough weekends for us where we are trying many things on the car but we don’t find a way through for now,” Leclerc added. “We need to keep our head down, stay motivated and better days will be coming - I am sure.”

Vettel’s chances of making it into Q2 were completely ruined due to a messy end to qualifying with cars overtaking each other at the final corner and down into Turn 1 on their final laps.

When asked about what happened at the end of Q1, Vettel said: “I don’t know, there was no point to start overtaking each other. It was the minimum time so everyone’s making it. The moment you start overtaking it’s causing trouble and that’s what it was.”

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