Charles Leclerc is acknowledging the need to address a particular weakness, especially considering his typically high standards in qualifying.
After finishing fourth at the Japanese Grand Prix, Leclerc openly admitted that he must enhance his performance in qualifying sessions, having been overshadowed by his teammate Carlos Sainz for the second race in a row.
Qualifying has traditionally been a strong suit for Leclerc, earning him recognition as the ‘fastest driver in F1’ by many experts, owing to his exceptional one-lap speed.
Nonetheless, recent subpar performances during qualifying sessions have prevented him from securing potential victories in Australia and podium finishes in Japan.
Reflecting on the Suzuka race, Leclerc expressed satisfaction with his fourth-place result but acknowledged the imperative for improved speed on Saturdays, emphasizing the significance of qualifying.
“I don’t think there was anything better to do today,” he remarked. “But finally today, I’m very happy.”
“I don’t think there was anything we could have done better, the pace was really good, tyre management was really good, communication was really good. However, as a driver, you always have to look at the negative over the whole weekend.
“And whether it’s in Australia or here, race pace has not been a problem. It’s my qualifying pace, which is not something that I’ve not been very used to in my career to be working on my qualifying pace, because normally it’s pretty good on the Saturday.
“However, two races now in a row, I’ve been struggling to put the tyres in the right window. This is definitely my main focus now going into Shanghai to try and re-find the right window of the tyres, and for me to put them more consistently inside that window.”
Leclerc will face two qualifying sessions to reverse this trend when F1 travels to China later this month for a sprint weekend.
Discussing his recent struggles in qualifying, Leclerc remarked, “My laps weren’t that bad yesterday; the lap that I’ve done was actually really good. But the grip that was available from the tyre was just not there.”
“And this is because I do a bad job on the lap before, which is very frustrating because you’ve finished a lap and you’re happy, but actually you’re nowhere. So I’ve got to focus on that.
“It’s very fine, like very little differences. However, I’m confident that by analysing the data, we’ve got a week before Shanghai, whenever I focus on something I’m quite good. I’m not too concerned, but I need to do this step forward for Shanghai.”
