Leclerc points to twin factors behind recent Ferrari slump

Charles Leclerc insists that Ferrari's slump in form is not a "trend" as he pointed to twin reasons behind recent poor performances.

After winning in Monaco, and finishing third, Ferrari suffered a double DNF in Canada with neither Leclerc or Carlos Sainz making Q3, and then struggling to make forward progress in the race.

In Spain last time out, the two finished fifth and sixth as the SF-24 was the fourth-quickest machine across the weekend, behind the Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes cars. 

However, heading to Austria, a track he won at in 2022, Leclerc is confident that the problems encountered are not linked and thus a trend. 

"In Montreal, we identified quite well what was going wrong, and it was more down to the tyres," Leclerc told media including RacingNews365. 

"In Barcelona, it was just raw pace [we were lacking] and we were just slower than we expected, but I don't think we optimised our package. 

"We'll keep on working on ourselves, try to optimise also the new package that we have on the car, which obviously was the first race in Barcelona. 

"We still have some work to try and find something and understand a bit more these new parts that we are using now. However, I don't think that the issues were the same in Montréal and Barcelona, so I don't think it's a trend."

Problems will be solved

Ferrari has excelled on street tracks recently, with the short radius corners and heavy traction zones suiting the car. 

This is a combination which is found in Austria, and Leclerc is confident of a turn around in fortunes. 

"I feel like the potential is in the car, the preparation on the simulator for this track went well," he added.

"So I feel confident we'll be back in the fight.

"We've been struggling mostly with long, slow-speed corners, which here there are fewer of. 

"So that's a good sign for us, but we're also working on that in order to have a better car in those corners, which I think we've seen some good steps forward in the last few races. 

"However we were struggling then in other corners, so we've just got to put everything together, but we are working on it and I'm confident it will be fine this weekend."