Leclerc has no plans to change F1 approach after “inconsistent” Portuguese GP

Leclerc endured his worst qualifying performance of the season at Portimao, qualifying eighth, while Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz managed fifth on the grid.

The 23-year-old fared better on race day, recovering to finish in sixth, behind Lando Norris as Ferrari lost further ground to McLaren in the race for third in the constructors’ championship.

Reflecting on the weekend at Portimao, Leclerc felt due to the windy conditions, he should have tackled the weekend differently, although he has no plans to change his approach for the longer term.

“I think I was speaking mostly about in these conditions with the very strong winds, I probably should have taken a different approach which is to go step by step in the weekend and to have taken strong references, and go ahead like this in the weekend, which I didn't do,” Leclerc said. “I tried to push it out to the max, straight from FP1, and struggled with the car, and never really had any good confidence and references to build on for the rest of the weekend.

“And in those conditions, I paid the price of being so inconsistent during the free practices. So I think in these conditions I probably need to change my approach but I won't change it for other races for now.”

Ferrari struggled for performance on the medium tyre during the Portuguese GP as Sainz dropped from fifth to finish 11th in the second stint.

Leclerc isn’t worried the mid-range Pirelli compound will play havoc with Ferrari’s weekend in Barcelona.

“I don't think there is anything worrying for us,” Leclerc added. “On the medium tyres surely we struggled, I think we could have maybe done something better as drivers and then we have some other ideas of what it could be and we are looking into it at the moment.

“It always takes a long time to look at the data, and that is what we are going to do now, but nothing worrying.”