Charles Leclerc and Ferrari have faced a troublesome start to the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend after two impressive races in Austin and Mexico. The Monegasque driver qualified eighth for the Sprint race and ultimately finished fifth—a result that fell short of expectations. After the race, Leclerc revealed that both Ferrari cars are grappling with an issue that is severely holding them back.
While qualifying eighth and finishing fifth in a 24-lap sprint race might appear respectable on paper, the result was partly influenced by Oscar Piastri’s crash on lap six of the shortened race. Having scored four points during the sprint but conceding ground to the Mercedes duo, Leclerc reflected on his performance at the Interlagos Circuit and shared insights into Ferrari’s lack of pace in a cryptic message.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 in his post-race comments, Leclerc said:
“This weekend has been very, very tough. Unfortunately, we have an issue on both cars that we cannot quite explain. We are losing a lot of lap time on the straight. We know we have higher downforce than others, but that doesn’t explain the gap we see on the straight. So there’s something off that I hope we can understand before qualifying. I’ll experiment with the setup anyway because at the moment we are not where we want to be, and I don’t think we can be much worse than qualifying yesterday.”
In the Sprint race, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and seventh respectively. With Kimi Räikkönen and George Russell taking podium spots inside the top three, Mercedes managed to leapfrog Ferrari in the interim constructors’ standings, entering second place ahead of the Italian team.
### Charles Leclerc: Second Place “Not Enough” for Ferrari
Leclerc has been with Ferrari since 2019. Over the past few years, the Scuderia has often finished as the runner-up, but it has not reclaimed the top spot in the constructors’ championship since 2008. While McLaren has already secured the 2025 Constructors’ Championship, the remaining teams are battling fiercely for the other positions on the leaderboard.
Leclerc stated, “I think when you drive for such a team, the only thing that is good enough is to win.”
As the Brazilian GP weekend continues, the 28-year-old driver, like the rest of the grid, is preparing to give his all in qualifying to secure a strong starting position for the Grand Prix tomorrow, November 9. Fans will be eagerly watching to see if Ferrari can solve their pace issues and get back on track.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/f1/news-charles-leclerc-shares-cryptic-message-hints-mysterious-issue-hurting-ferrari