DOHA, Qatar — Charles Leclerc offered a blunt assessment after qualifying: he has zero confidence that Ferrari can fight for points in Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Despite the team going scoreless in Saturday’s sprint, Leclerc leaned on his trademark one-lap speed to haul the difficult Ferrari into Q3. A massive spin on his first flyer left him P10 — the best the car could manage even on a clean lap.
“It’s really difficult to drive and just frustrating,” Leclerc said. “That second lap in Q3 was strong, but it’s only good enough for 10th, which sums up how far off we are.”
Asked what would constitute a successful Sunday, the normally upbeat Monegasque was uncharacteristically downbeat:
“I’m usually very optimistic, but I’m struggling to find any here. There hasn’t been a single lap all weekend that makes me think we can turn this around. Realistically, a ‘good’ day would be keeping the car on track and maybe sneaking a point or two — but I don’t actually believe we’ll manage even that. I’ll try to hold the top ten, yet deep down I don’t think it’s possible.”
Teammate Lewis Hamilton endured an even tougher day, exiting in Q1 for the third consecutive session (Las Vegas, Qatar sprint, and now the grand prix) — the first time the seven-time world champion has suffered back-to-back Q1 eliminations since 2009.
On his chances of charging through the field on Sunday, Hamilton was equally blunt: “Not really. We saw in the sprint that overtaking is almost impossible. We’ll try something different with strategy and hope for the best.”
