Leclerc: Ferrari 'paying the price' for British GP sacrifice

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari is experiencing short-term pain but is sure that its British Grand Prix experiments will pay dividends in future.

Since winning in Monaco with a one-three result, Ferrari's form has struggled, with Leclerc scoring just 12 points in the three races, with two non-scores and a fifth in Spain and seventh in the Austrian sprint his results.

Ferrari has reverted to an old-spec after recent upgrades brought back the porpoising effect that was thought eradicated after the early 2022 chaos, but the Scuderia has opted for back-to-back running throughout practice to try and troubleshoot the problems with the SF-24.

Although it means the team have effectively sacrificed this weekend, Leclerc is confident it will pay off in the future as he failed to make Q3, being bumped by Lance Stroll, meaning he will start 11th at Silverstone.

"[On Friday], we learned a good amount for the team by splitting the cars, but that comes also with the fact that you're not really optimising your weekend and focusing on performance," Leclerc told media including RacingNews365. 

"Obviously, we lost out on Q3 by a tenth, and it was the first time that I was driving with this configuration in the dry after FP3 was wet.

"We are struggling to optimise the weekend, but I think it will help us in the long-term what we did [on Friday], however, I feel like we're paying the price today.

"Turns 13-15, I went completely straight, the front-left was just out of the window and had very little grip.

"I was struggling a lot with the balance in the high-speed and getting the car rotated, so that is where I think most of the time was."

Leclerc needs rain for Ferrari

"I won't go too much into detail, but for sure we've lost some performance since Monaco, and we are looking into it, that is why we are doing all of these tests. 

"We came to the conclusion that it was the right choice to come back for this weekend because of the bouncing and we'll take the right decision for the future very soon.

"What we did [on Friday], was very helpful to us to take the right decision going forward, but we need to bounce back and find balance and performance. 

"The worst thing [for us] would be a normal race with the same strategy for everybody, so I am hoping there is some rain."