{"id":241089,"date":"2025-07-05T21:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T21:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241089\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T21:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T21:41:11","slug":"the-mysterious-very-weird-problem-holding-ferrari-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241089\/","title":{"rendered":"The mysterious ‘very weird’ problem holding Ferrari back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc has revealed that Ferrari has been fighting a \u201cvery weird\u201d problem with its 2025 Formula 1 car in qualifying which has triggered many of its Q3 disappointments.<\/p>\n

Leclerc and team-mate Lewis Hamilton had looked to be a serious threat for pole position at F1\u2019s British Grand Prix after coming off the back of some impressive practice sessions.<\/p>\n

But they both fell short in Q3 \u2013 as Hamilton ended up fifth<\/a> and Leclerc sixth, behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, both McLarens and George Russell’s Mercedes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking afterwards, a disappointed Leclerc opened up about how a recurring problem that the team has been battling all year showed up once again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the beginning of the season I\u2019ve been performing very well in the races, and looking back at races there are actually not many races where I will go back to change something that I\u2019ve done inside the car,\u201d said Leclerc, who qualified sixth.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately when I look back at qualifying, which used to be my strength, there are many where I\u2019d like to go back and change something, because every time I get to Q3 it\u2019s not clicking for some reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had good qualifyings but we haven\u2019t had great qualifyings. This used to be my strength, and I\u2019m not happy with the level I\u2019m showing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn qualifying we\u2019ve got issues for sure, particularly from Q2 onwards. We\u2019ve been fighting with something inside the car, but it\u2019s not an excuse, I need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc is often highly self-critical when he feels he’s underperformed in a crucial session, and the same was true here. After a moment in the last corner of a generally slightly untidy Q3 laps, Leclerc banged his steering wheel in frustration and berated himself over team radio:<\/p>\n

“F***, f*** f***, f***, f***. F*** that. So f***ing s***, I am. I am so f***ing s***. That’s what I am.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to media including The Race in the mixed zone after the session, Leclerc did not want to go into details about what the wider Ferrari issue was, but suggested it was not related to the car\u2019s handling \u2013 so was not linked to ongoing struggles the team has had related to its car’s ride height.<\/p>\n

The team is set to introduce a revised rear suspension at the Belgian Grand Prix, but Leclerc said this would not have impacted on this qualifying problem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unrelated,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something we didn\u2019t talk about too much.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that sometimes in some qualifyings we had the problem. In some others we have absolutely zero problem with it, but today was a bit of a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issues are very specific, it\u2019s not a balance issue, it\u2019s not a grip issue. I don\u2019t want to go into the details but it\u2019s something very weird that we\u2019ve got to fight with the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd especially when it\u2019s high-speed, it makes it even more difficult. I hope we can resolve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the good thing, if we can say it\u2019s a good thing, is that tomorrow we won\u2019t have any of this and for sure, we won\u2019t have any problems of that sort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hamilton, whose hopes of pole position on home turf were already derailed before the time lost through understeer at the final corner, said he too sometimes suffered this same problem \u2013 but it had not struck him here.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much all the other sessions, the second round in Q3, has always been a little bit harder but today I was progressing which is\u00a0positive, so I think I’ve taken a step there. But there is still more to get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if this problem was something that could be cured this season, Hamilton said: \u201cI don\u2019t know, I’m not sure it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Leclerc was not offering any more details about the problem, comparison of his best laps from Q2 to Q3 does highlight that his car is actually slower in some sections of the lap \u2013 especially in the opening complex and at the end of straights.<\/p>\n

This could be a consequence of energy management, or some engine characteristics related to the temperature cycle that power units go through during qualifying \u2013 where they have to do repeated fast laps in a short duration.<\/p>\n

The high-speed nature of Silverstone puts a premium on engine power and has a high-demand on the hybrid system because there are so few heavy braking corners that help with recharging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc has revealed that Ferrari has been fighting a \u201cvery weird\u201d problem with its 2025 Formula 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-241089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114802805024022157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}