Leclerc is lost – has 'zero idea' how Ferrari car will react

Charles Leclerc says he has "zero idea" how his Ferrari will behave when it approaches a corner, the Monegasque falling victim to his machine's unpredictability when he crashed out of qualifying at Zandvoort on Saturday.

Leclerc has been at odds with his car's behaviour since the start of the Scuderia's race weekend in Zandvoort although on Friday he reckoned that some fine-tuning would suffice to put his car in the right window.

In FP3, the treacherous conditions appeared to compound the SF-23's handling troubles, with Leclerc locking up and taking the escape route at Turn 1 multiple times.

While he made it through the first two segments of qualifying despite battling traffic issues out on the track. But in Q3 he was running fifth when his car stepped slightly out of line on its approach to Turn 9.

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The Ferrari's front end then washed out, which propelled the car onto the grass and then broadside into the Tecpro barrier, Leclerc's session coming to a brutal halt.

"It’s just the car this weekend that is extremely difficult to drive," he said. "In Formula 1, it's all about anticipating and knowing what balance you're going to get once you get into the corner.

"But, at the moment, I'm getting into the corner and I have zero idea whether I'm going to have huge understeer, huge oversteer.

"That makes it very, very difficult for us. So, it's been a very difficult weekend until now."

Leclerc said that the overnight changes implemented by the Scuderia did little to improve its contender.

"Since FP1, we've been struggling in Turn 1, 9 and 10. We changed the car completely and honestly, there's not much that helps us in these three corners," he elaborated.

"Those corners where you go into the corner, you are releasing the brake, there's absolutely no grip in mid-corner for whatever reason. Then you're just trusting the car on gripping again in the exit, which it didn't on that lap. I obviously ended up in the wall.

"It's just very, very difficult to be on the limits... As soon as you get close to the limit, you just really don't know what's going to happen… so it's a difficult situation."

Leclerc will line up ninth on Sunday's grid, three spots behind Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz who qualified sixth.

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