Leclerc: ‘Years long’ problem amplified during difficult Spa Friday

Charles Leclerc has highlighted the difficult nature of understanding the pecking order at Spa-Francorchamps following Friday practice.

Leclerc ended the second practice outing in fourth place, almost four-tenths down on session leader Lando Norris.

Ferrari has slipped behind in the F1 pecking order of late and has appeared fourth best at the last handful of race weekends.

After concluding the opening day of practice, Leclerc admits he is somewhat in the dark over its true position at Spa.

“It was a very difficult day to understand to be honest, there was a lot of difference in pace, different conditions, different tyres as well,” he said.

“Everybody was on a different plan. It’s been quite a few years now that it’s difficult to understand the picture on Friday with this generation of car. Today it’s even more so.”

However, the Monegasque driver acknowledged there is still a gap to McLaren, who overtook Ferrari in the constructors' championship last time out in Hungary.

“We’ve got to focus on ourselves, find the right compromise for tomorrow which will probably be wet and Sunday which will be dry,” he added.

“We're on it, we still have quite a lot of meetings to go through and hopefully we find a compromise for tomorrow and Sunday.

“We're struggling to McLaren a little bit everywhere. We don’t have any magical solution but we will give it our best. It’s the last race before the holidays so I hope we can finish on a high.”