Charles Leclerc delivered Ferrari’s fourth-place finish in qualifying for the Japan Grand Prix. A result that, after the first two races of the season, gives the Maranello team some relief, but one that still doesn’t fully satisfy the Italian squad.
It is clear that the team led by Frédéric Vasseur is racing defensively, waiting to have the right tools to fight for pole positions and victories again. However, today, it was about maximizing the current potential of the SF-25, and Charles Leclerc’s Q3 lap, which gave him the fourth position, is a good sign.
The Monegasque driver could have done better on his qualifying lap, considering he didn’t perform well in the first sector—the only one where Ferrari has consistently shown strength. However, the rest of the lap was solid, finishing behind only the usual McLarens and a Max Verstappen in top form today.
“Yes, I didn’t do well in the first sector. But there are several things. On one hand, I’m disappointed with the result, but not too surprised—we expected McLaren to be very strong, as well as Red Bull. We knew we couldn’t pull off a miracle.”
However, Charles Leclerc doesn’t focus only on the negatives. Yesterday, as he had already said, he managed to figure out how to set up the car in a way that would allow him to extract the most from the current SF-25. And perhaps the fourth place today is a result of what he learned yesterday.
“That being said, there are weekends when you don’t get the result you want, but the things you learn are much more important. I said it yesterday and I’ll repeat it today. Yesterday, we made a big step forward for me. I understood more about how to prepare the car to extract more potential. And that’s always positive in a result that is definitely disappointing because we don’t race for fourth place.”
According to the Monegasque driver, Ferrari couldn’t have gotten more out of their car today, at least not with his version of the car. Fourth place was the best result they could aim for, and now he’s looking forward to tomorrow, when he’ll likely face an uncertain race, similar to what we commented on a few weeks ago in Melbourne.
“We can say that today we didn’t have any more. We maximized what we had, and I hope that what we found yesterday will help me in the race. I hope to get back to the front.” – he concluded.
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