Leclerc: McLaren ‘on another planet’ but Ferrari upgrades working

Charles Leclerc has admitted to feeling frustrated by McLaren's blistering pace in Friday’s practice sessions in Bahrain, acknowledging that the papaya team is currently “on another planet.”

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris obliterated the field in FP2, securing a commanding one-two that left the pack trailing by half a second, with Leclerc fourth in the pecking order.

Despite his annoyance, the Monegasque remains motivated to close the gap to McLaren and is encouraged by the progress made with the Scuderia’s car following a successful upgrade.

McLaren’s Unreachable Pace

Feeling the weight of Ferrari’s deficit, Leclerc didn’t sugarcoat his team’s opening day of running at Sakhir.

“We’re just not fast enough. When we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now,” he conceded. It’s annoying, but it’s the way it is.”

“The half-second deficit to Piastri stung, a stark reminder of the work ahead. But rather than dwell on the gap, Leclerc found inspiration in the challenge.

“It actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible, but they are incredibly fast,” he added. McLaren’s MCL39 was the benchmark, and Leclerc was itching to chase it down. But the FP2 session itself threw curveballs.

“It’s been a tricky session, because it’s so much warmer than the [pre-season] test, and obviously you go into a session expecting the grip that you had at the test and it’s completely different,” Leclerc explained.

The hotter conditions scrambled Ferrari’s setup, demanding rapid adjustments. “We’ve got to readjust the car and there will be a lot of work during the night to try and turn the situation around tomorrow,” he said.

Ferrari’s Progress and Targeting Mercedes and Red Bull

When asked about Ferrari’s prospects of challenging both Mercedes and Red Bull, Leclerc expressed cautious optimism.

“With Mercedes, it seems that we are pretty much there,” he said, implying that Ferrari’s performance is on par with their rivals from Brackley.

“With Red Bull it’s a bit more difficult; I think Max [Verstappen] had one less tyre compared to us in FP2, so I think he’s probably a bit in front.”

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Despite these challenges, Leclerc remains confident that there is more potential to unlock from Ferrari’s SF-25.

“I think there’s some performance still to be found on our side, maximising the car, the upgrade, and we’ll see where that leaves us tomorrow.”

Upgrades Proving Beneficial for Ferrari

Leclerc did have some positive news to share, particularly regarding the performance of Ferrari’s latest upgrades. The updated floor, which has been a key focus for the team, seems to be delivering the expected improvements, something confirmed by Lewis Hamilton.

“The upgrades are definitely working,” said the seven-time world champion, praising the efforts of those working back at Ferrari’s headquarters.

“A big, big thank you to everyone back home for working so hard on bringing the upgrades, because it’s never an easy thing. It’s a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel and a lot of work that goes on in fabricating and putting together these floors.

"It’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forward. We’re trying to now extract more from it and I hope we can make the right steps overnight to tomorrow,” the Britone concluded.

Despite the initial frustrations, the work Ferrari has done on its car, combined with Leclerc’s drive to improve, will hopefully keep them firmly in the mix as they target a stronger showing in the remaining sessions and the race itself.

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