The Sprint, just like in China, was merely a fleeting illusion. Ferrari struggles again in qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, just hours after securing third place in the short race with Lewis Hamilton.
Charles Leclerc, the only Ferrari driver to make it to Q3, had to settle for eighth, over half a second behind Max Verstappen, who claimed pole (550 thousandths, to be precise).
But what made it even more bitter—besides the fourth row—is that the best-placed SF-25 was beaten by both Williams cars. In short, a qualifying session to forget, yet another low point in a season that has barely started but is already testing the patience of Scuderia Ferrari fans.
“There was something strange with me today in qualifying. I don’t know what happened, we need to look at the car,” said Charles Leclerc to Sky Sport F1 microphones after the official session in Miami.
“In Q1, we had completely wrong balance, and we didn’t make many changes before qualifying. We need to look at everything; it wasn’t an easy day. And anyway, I thank the mechanics, who did a great job getting the car back in shape.”
“For now, I don’t want to say much. We made some changes, but either those changes were much bigger than we expected or there’s an error somewhere, but we’ll see. For now, I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
For his part, Charles Leclerc believes he extracted the maximum from the car and his driving. After qualifying, Charles said over the radio that he did a lap on the limit, meaning he had no more to give. Yet, the clock and the gaps were unforgiving.
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“Today, too, I did a lap thinking I didn’t have more. In Q2, I struggled massively to make it to Q3. This weekend, we are struggling, and we are also behind the Williams in a normal qualifying session. They didn’t have bad luck, or maybe we did. These are normal laps for them and for us. But in the slow corners, we’re really struggling. I hope the updates will help us.” – the Monegasque driver concluded.
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