Charles Leclerc reveals cause of Canadian GP pace gap to Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc has offered insight into why he lacked performance compared to Lewis Hamilton during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

Hamilton out-qualified Leclerc in both the sprint and grand prix qualifying sessions and also appeared to have stronger race pace.

The seven-time world champion went on to secure second place after a late-race overtake on Max Verstappen, marking his best result as a Ferrari driver.

Leclerc finished fourth on the road but was over half a minute behind his team-mate.

Although Hamilton had pledged ahead of the weekend to change his approach after feeling misled by simulator data in Miami, Leclerc insisted the performance gap between the pair was not related to car set-up.

“There's none of the performance we are seeing today down to a set-up,” Leclerc told media including RacingNews365.

“You can say there's one-tenth in a setup, but at the end of the day, it's not that much. 

“In F1, now we are speaking about such small details.”

Leclerc explained that he lacked confidence behind the wheel and couldn't push the car towards the limit, resulting in a significant pace differential.

“It's more about my feeling and just the way I drove [on Sunday].

“But not having the feeling, you don't push a car to its limits, and I can feel I'm completely off the pace. 

“It's not like I'm pushing, and then you can say, 'okay, the setup is not exactly where you want to be'. 

“By not having confidence on a day like this, I just didn't push hard.”