Charles Leclerc: “We are slow, difficult to do something special” | Dutch GP. Only ninth on the timesheet, but that's not what worries Charles Leclerc.

Charles Leclerc doesn’t hide his feelings after a difficult first day of practice at Zandvoort: the SF-24 is currently too far behind to think about doing something special in qualifying, but the hope is at least to close the gap and get closer to the competition.

Only ninth on the timesheet, but that’s not what worries Charles Leclerc. As he predicted on the eve of the race, the Zandvoort round doesn’t seem to favor Ferrari, much like last year, to the point that the Monegasque driver believes it will be difficult to try to pull off something special to turn the weekend around.

If Ferrari was already trailing behind McLaren and Red Bull before, the Dutch track highlights some issues that have already been seen throughout the championship, where the SF-24 has shown more signs of struggle compared to other cars. The nature of the long, high-downforce curves, with medium-high-speed sections where support and stability are needed, especially where precision is required during braking in the rotation phase, has once again exposed the limits of the Maranello project while awaiting updates that should arrive in the upcoming races.

The new developments brought in recent Grand Prix have helped to solve some problems that emerged with the package introduced in Barcelona, but they haven’t addressed the inherent issues of the SF-24. That’s why at Zandvoort, where McLaren introduced major updates and Mercedes revisited those that had been temporarily discarded at Spa, it was a tough day, as admitted by Charles Leclerc after the second free practice session for the 2024 Formula 1 Dutch GP.

“I’d say it was tough, as expected, because unfortunately, we don’t have the pace of those ahead of us. I think it’s better than what the timesheet shows, but we’re still not able to fight for the win. So there’s still a lot of work to do. That’s what we’re doing, but I hope it pays off,” said the Monegasque driver, who lost a lot of time during his lap, especially in the second sector, between turns 7, 8, 9, and 10—precisely the sections where you need support and steering precision to find time.

At the moment, given the significant gap from the top, nearly seven and a half tenths, it’s difficult for the Monegasque driver to think about doing something special, with one of his “magic” qualifying laps that could deliver an unexpected result. The hope is to at least close the gap, but if the Maranello team fails to do so, Ferrari knows that the Grand Prix could turn into a defensive race.

“I’ll try to do something special in qualifying, but at the moment, the gap is a bit too big to do something special. If we could get within 3/10, maybe there would be something to do. Otherwise, I foresee a difficult weekend for us,” Charles Leclerc added.