Charles Leclerc didn’t mince words after a disastrous qualifying session for Ferrari at Imola. The Monegasque driver will start only eleventh on the grid tomorrow
His post-qualifying comments left little room for interpretation. In his seventh season driving for Ferrari, Leclerc delivered a scathing critique of the SF-25’s performance and issued a heartfelt apology for what he called an unacceptable showing on home soil.
Despite promised upgrades, especially to the rear of the car, the improvements appear to have failed, revealing what may be the true—and troubling—potential of this year’s car. The brief glimmers of hope seen in Jeddah seem long gone at Imola.
Leclerc’s statements
Leclerc, who failed to advance to Q3 and finished nearly half a second behind Carlos Sainz—now driving for Williams and leading Q2—spoke candidly to Sky Sport Italia:“First of all, I think the most important thing is to apologize.
When there’s so much passion surrounding this team and then we come here and don’t even make it out of Q2, it hurts. It hurts us inside the team just as much, believe me. This level of performance is simply unacceptable”.“.
Speaking to Canal+, Leclerc continued:
“We’re clearly not at the level we should be. Even when we put in decent laps, we’re just not competitive. We’re nowhere, and it’s painful”.
Then came the harshest blow:”What are we missing? Everything. I have no words— we were knocked out in Q2.. The race? We’d need a miracle, but you can’t rely on miracles every Sunday. We simply need to improve. Right now, we are not where we need to be”.
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari HP
