Charles Leclerc sounds major Ferrari Dutch GP alarm

Charles Leclerc has described Ferrari's performance on Friday at the Dutch Grand Prix as a "wake-up call" after lowly positions. 

During FP1, Leclerc placed only 14th fastest, ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in 15th, with positions being flipped as Hamilton climbed to sixth and Leclerc eighth. 

The Monegasque was 0.096s slower than Hamilton in the afternoon, but was still nearly a full second slower than pace-setter Lando Norris. 

Adding a further complication to Ferrari's weekend was the standout performance of Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, who split the dominant McLarens, finishing within a tenth of Norris.

The Spanish racer believes he could fight Ferrari in qualifying, with Leclerc believing major work was needed to turn the Scuderia's fortunes around heading into qualifying.

"I would sum it up as a very, very, very, very difficult Friday," Leclerc explained. 

"It was probably the worst Friday of the season, which, right after the holiday, is a little bit of a wake-up call. 

"We've had some difficult Fridays, but now it is up to us to turn the situation around. But for sure, it was not an easy day. 

"FP1 was extremely difficult, and FP2 was slightly better, but we are still very far off where we want to be.

"McLaren is in a league of its own, and Aston Martin was a surprise for us, but we will try to improve the cars."

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Leclerc explains Ferrari problem

When asked where exactly his SF-25 machine was losing so much time, Leclerc identified two corners in particular where Ferrari was weak, but did not name them.

I mean, we are losing basically 90% of the time. We lose in two corners, and there's just something that our car cannot do at the moment, and we are trying to find out why it's so concentrated in two corners. Normally, that's never the case. So yeah, we'll work in trying to find a solution for these

"We are losing basically 90% of the time in two corners, and there is just something that our car cannot do at the moment," he said.

"We are trying to find out why it is so concentrated in two corners, as that is never normally the case, so we will try to work to find a solution. 

"I'm looking forward to trying to turn it around and try to make a miracle [in qualifying], but it is not going to be an easy weekend for us."