Leclerc ‘surprised’ to be “so far back” in Belgian F1 GP

Charles Leclerc expects Ferrari to continue to struggle for pace at Formula 1's Spa-Francorchamps after a disappointing Friday.

Leclerc and team-mate Sebastian Vettel languished at the bottom end of the time-sheets in Belgium - ending FP2 in 15th and 17th place, with the Williams of George Russell splitting the pair.

The Italian team went into this weekend knowing it was going to be a struggle given its deficiencies in 2020 but it appears to be worse than expected.

Reflecting on Friday practice at Spa, there weren't any positives for Leclerc - at the scene of his first F1 win in 2019.

“Yeah, very difficult day,” Leclerc said. “Well. I think it’s probably a surprise to be so far back, especially in FP2, we tried quite a lot of things in FP2, at the beginning I tried something quite aggressive in downforce levels but it didn’t really work out so we came back on that, and yeah, we are just lacking pace at the moment.

“We need to work hard to catch back but I don’t expect miracles for this weekend.”

Even with rain forecast for Sunday’s race, Leclerc doesn’t believe that will save Ferrari given its current balance issues.

“I don’t know because we are struggling quite a lot with the balance this weekend and normally in the rain balance only gets worse and the issues you have on the dry are worse on the rain. I think it’s going to be difficult if we don’t find any solution to fix the balance problems we have today.”

Team-mate Vettel conceded it was a “difficult” day for Ferrari and the German is also doubtful the wet weather will improve its fortunes. 

“Well I think it was a difficult day for us, the car was difficult and tricky to drive, that also means that we are not quite where we should be,” Vettel said. “We’re looking currently to find options with the set-up, we tried a lot this afternoon, reset and try again, and try something different. I’m sure tomorrow will be a bit better. I don’t know what the weather will be like but we’ll tackle it tomorrow.

“Difficult. I think we had some glimpse of wet conditions this year in Austria and Hungary practice, it won’t be the easiest for us but it’s always a chance to mix things up, we’ll see what we can get.”