Ferrari 'exposed' to 'frustrating compromise' - Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc has explained how Ferrari has been left "exposed" to a "frustrating" compromise in qualifying.

The Monegasque driver will line up for the Japanese Grand Prix in fourth after McLaren found some form at Suzuka.

With Oscar Piastri comfortably out-qualifying him, the 28-year-old pointed out how the Mercedes power unit is less adversely affected by the idiosyncrasies of qualifying in F1's regulatory era.

After the grid setting session, Leclerc told Sky Sports F1: "It's very frustrating, because come Q3, at least myself, and that's how I approach qualifying since forever, you go into that last lap, and you try things that are a little bit above whatever you've tried before.

"And when you do that, the system needs to reoptimise everything while you are driving, basically. And so that, for some reason, whenever I get to Q3, I start losing time on the straights. So I make time in the corners, I lose time on the straights.

"And this is very frustrating, because you never really put a lap together, because you're always compromising one thing for another, and that's a little bit frustrating, but it's the way it is for everybody.

"I feel that, for some reason, we are a little bit more exposed to that compared to maybe the Mercedes engine, which is something that we need to look at."

The eight-time grand prix winner pointed out how the FIA is already looking at the situation, after the motorsport governing body tweaked the qualifying rules ahead of the weekend in Japan by reducing the energy recharge limit from 9.0 MJ to 8.0 MJ.

"I also know that the FIA is obviously trying to understand what other things we can do to fix those issues going forward, because it's still something that everybody has," he said.

"But yeah, apart from that, I was actually very happy with my lap," the Ferrari driver added.

"I had a moment at Turn 8, but actually, that didn't have any implications for whatever I had later on, like power unit-wise, it didn't have an influence."

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