The Miami Grand Prix was another frustrating weekend for the Ferrari team, whose 2023 campaign has definitely not got off to the sort of start that everyone at Maranello had been hoping for or expecting.
Carlos Sainz started the race from third but ended up finishing in fifth having been overtaken by Mercedes' George Russell and incurring a five second pit speeding penalty along the way.
And it was a nightmare weekend for Charles Leclerc, who crashed in both practice and qualifying and had a fairly anonymous race, crossing the line in seventh having been overtaken by Russell's team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur - who took on the role over the winter after Mattia Binotto was let go in part due his failure to challenge Red Bull for last year's title - admitted that things were not going well for Ferrari.
"We are far too much inconsistent from one car to the other, and from one lap to the other," Vasseur admitted. "We have to understand why.
"We really need to focus our attention on this because it’s key for us, and we are aware we have to do a step.
“It’s not just the race" where the team is struggling, he told the media in Miami on Sunday, adding: "At some stages of the race we were okay-ish ... I think the pace was decent but we were not able to put everything together.
“The first stint went pretty well for Carlos," Vasseur pointed out. "He lost five seconds in 18 laps. I think this stage of the race was okay for us.
"For Charles it was the opposite. He was in a good shape at some stages of the second stint with the hard [tyre], and he was struggling much more in the first part of the race."
© Ferrari
However Vasseur explained that the problem wasn't down to the different tyre compounds, as the handling and performance of one car when switching tyres didn't match what they were seeing on the other.
“With Charles we were performing better on the hards, and with Carlos we’re much more performing on the medium," he pointed out. "Even with the same tyres, from one lap to the other one we are a bit inconsistent.
Leclerc was looking equally perplexed by the situation he and Sainz found themselves in this week.
“It was really difficult,” he said after the finish. “We were just speaking about it with Carlos, and we basically agreed that we have a car that is so incredibly difficult to be on the limit.
“On my side, I don’t know what was going on but in the high-speed [corners] I had the car moving a lot. Not from the rear, but just the overall platform of the car was touching like crazy.
"We will check the car and everything, but it didn’t feel great," he said. “As I was saying with Carlos, it was just a very inconsistent car today so I’m just trying to get the car to the end.”
From their quick debrief , Leclerc didn't feel that Sainz had suffered the same issues that he had experienced, although he admitted that he still had to catch up and watch the race to see how Sainz had fared.
“I cannot speak for Carlos. I haven’t seen it. I don’t think he was complaining about it that much, speaking to him. But for me it was quite crazy, so I really don’t know what was going on."
After “obviously another great, great race” as he mockingly described it, Leclerc stressed the importance of the team finding a way forward with its upcoming programme of upgrades to the SF-23.
"We're very far away now. Like very, very far away," he lamented. "I really struggle to find any explanations why we are so far away in the race, and so close in qualifying. This is something we really need to work on.”
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
