Charles Leclerc had been hoping to bounce back from a double DNF for Ferrari in the last race in Montreal, and expected to be in the mix for pole position in today's qualifying session in Spain only to end up frustrated.
After a mixed day on Friday as the team introduced some promising new upgrades to the SF-24, Leclerc had looked strong in final practice in FP3 while his team mate Carlos Sainz was quickest of all.
Leclerc was up to speed in the first round of qualifying although he was pipped right at the end of Q1 by Lewis Hamilton. In the second round he gambled on having a good enough time to make the cut without coming out a second time.
While that paid off and left him with an extra set of new soft compound tyres for the race, Leclerc was frustrated not to have the pace to compete for pole or the second row and had to settle for P5 alongside Sainz.
“I’m not happy and I’m disappointed with the pace of the car today in qualifying because we are further away than what we had anticipated," he told the media in the paddock at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Even so, he felt that he and the team had made positive steps over the weekend and that the new upgrade was already delivering results. “I’m happy in a way with the progress, with the feeling that I’ve had from yesterday to today.
“I’m sure that the upgrade that we brought is doing what it’s supposed to do and it’s a good step forward,” he said. "However it’s always a relative sport and other teams have also brought upgrades so it all depends how much of a step forward everybody is doing.
“FP1 we had the old package, we had to obviously do the compare between the two cars which was needed," he explained. “Just being a bit late to get into the rhythm. In FP2 the car felt really out of place.
He said that he had been struggling for balance. “Today we changed, basically, not everything but a lot of things in the car. In FP3 I felt straight away much more at ease. However the pace is just not there.
“For sure there’s more optimisation with this new package that we can do, but I wouldn’t take that as an excuse. I think we are just lacking a little bit of pace this weekend.”
The Ferrari seemed to be suffering from a lack of downforce making him slower than his rivals through the final corner, which will probably be an even bigger headache in the race.
"It’s more that we didn’t perform the way we should have had this weekend, and we need to look into it," he acknowledged. “Now there are two cars in front by three-tenths and a half, so today it’s not really encouraging for us."
Sainz said that the Ferrari had been bouncing through high speed corners. “We've been struggling all weekend with the high-speed corners,” he noted. “We still have this bouncing phenomenon that gives us a very tough time in those corners.
“Probably this is also killing a bit the tyre for the third sector," he added. I'm fighting this porpoising in high-speed corners when you put lateral load in the car and it's been tough all weekend to try and get rid of it. We still haven't managed to
Sainz said it was disappointing to still have this problem three seasons into the return of ground effect aerodynamics when McLaren and Red Bull were experiencing zero bouncing by comparison.
"Red Bull, when they turn it up, and McLaren when they turn it up, they have an edge over us," he admitted.
“I’m disappointed, because honestly after free practice I thought we had a chance to fight for pole position this weekend. But very quickly in Q2 we realised we were just step too far [away]."
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