Charles Leclerc has revealed that Ferrari was unable to contest pole position in the United States Grand Prix due to an existing “limitation” with its 2024 Formula 1 car.
Leclerc ended up one place down on team-mate Carlos Sainz as Ferrari claimed a second-row lock-out behind polesitter Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Ferrari was unable to match its rivals over a single lap as Sainz was three-tenths slower than Norris’ benchmark in the McLaren, while Leclerc was another tenth back.
Both drivers were denied a chance to improve with a second attempt in Q3, though, as George Russell’s crash at the penultimate corner produced a premature climax.
But Leclerc has admitted an extra lap wouldn’t have improved Ferrari’s result as its SF-24 has an intrinsic issue which has been exposed at the Circuit of the Americas.
“Improved, yes,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week when asked whether he could have bettered his initial lap time with a second attempt in Q3.
“But, honestly, [it] wouldn’t have changed a lot. Would have been either P3 or P4.
“With Carlos it would have been close in the last sector, but it doesn’t change anything for the team.
“Neither of us were capable of fighting with the top two, they were too fast.
“But that’s what we expected as a team, the first sector in qualifying today and yesterday.
“We knew we have a limitation in our car at the moment, and none of the set-up options we thought of would cure that issue.
“In the race, we have a lot less of that issue. That’s why I’m more optimistic for tomorrow’s race.”
However, Leclerc has denied that Ferrari’s problem is a recurrence of the bouncing conundrum that hampered the squad’s competitiveness earlier on in the campaign.
“No, there is more bottoming and actual bumps on track which offset us a lot and we are touching quite a lot, so this makes it very tricky for us,” he expanded.
Leclerc hints at rival set-up changes
Leclerc suspects Ferrari being closer to the competition in the opening sector than the Sprint implies that the others have made set-up changes with the race in mind.
Asked how much progress Ferrari made with its troubles to generate heat in the Soft compound, Leclerc replied: “It felt a little bit better. The issues were still there.
“But maybe looked like others have changed philosophy of car set-up and started to struggle in the first sector like us, because the gap is not as big as yesterday in that particular sector.
“So, it probably means tomorrow they’ll also be doing a step forward in the race. But let’s wait and see.”
Ferrari aiming to land US GP win
The Monegasque remains optimistic, however, that Ferrari can mount the challenge to McLaren and Red Bull based on the pace it was able to show in the Sprint race.
“I think McLaren and Red Bull will most likely do a step forward in terms of car set-up for tomorrow,” he reiterated.
“We need to see how much of a step forward that is on lap times. If we see the same race pace as this morning, for sure race win is possible.”
Leclerc also believes the main race will validate whether Ferrari has made the strides it anticipates with the upgrade package that it introduced at Monza last month.
“I think we did [have a complete grasp on the upgrades]if I assess what we see and what we feel from the beginning of the weekend,” he explained.
“But tomorrow is the real test, a whole race. If we see a similar pace to this morning in the race, I think we did a step forward, for sure.
“Normally quite a good track to look at all characteristics of the car.”
READ MORE: Ferrari’s late Sprint pace gives Carlos Sainz ‘hope’ in Austin
