Leclerc blasts 'inconsistent' problems with SF-23

Charles Leclerc has blasted the "inconsistencies" with the Ferrari SF-23 after a tough Miami Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver finished where he started the race in P7, and over 50 seconds behind Max Verstappen, who started two places lower than him on the grid in P9.

Leclerc was struggling with tyre degradation in the opening stages of the race, making it clear that there are a lot of problems despite the team bringing upgrades to the race this weekend.

"I was just speaking just now with Carlos and what we are lacking is consistency in the car," Leclerc told media.

"It's not even from corner to corner, it's just in the same corner I can have a huge oversteer rebalance and then a huge understeer balance; our car is so wind-affected."

Midway through the race Leclerc could be heard describing the "bouncing" on his car over team radio, which also affected his pace relative to Lewis Hamilton, who overtook him for P6 in the closing stages.

He added: "I had a lot of bottoming, especially in the high speed, which is something I can't quite explain because I didn't have that yesterday and neither had it before yesterday."

Leclerc: Inconsistencies affecting confidence behind wheel

When asked if he felt better on the Medium tyres in the opening stages of the race, Leclerc replied that he suffered from the same tyre graining phase as he did on the Hards.

"No, it was just the same. At the end on the Hard once the graining cleaned up a little bit, it was a tiny bit better, but we are just lacking pace and inconsistency."

Leclerc explains that the problems are manifesting at each race where the team does not know how the car will react to the tyres, which is affecting his confidence behind the wheel.

"Every single race, we are going from one compound to the other and we never know what's going to happen on the new compound," he said.

"It's always whether the car is going to react well or whether the tyres are going to be in the right window.

"This is just very difficult also as a driver to gain the confidence and to adapt your driving, because you get from one set to the other and the car is difficult."