“Red Bull are on another planet” - Charles Leclerc’s honest admission after Saudi Arabian GP qualifying
Leclerc missed out on p𝔉ole by just under 0.2s in Jeddah, which was a remarkable recovery for Ferrari after their difficulties in practice.
However, the Monegasque will start the race from 12th after be🌜ing hit with a 10-place grid penalty ahead of the weekend due to needing a third control electronics in his Ferrari power unit.
This came after Leclerc retired on Lap 40 of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix🍎 and his CE was not recoverable.
Speaking after qualifying, Leclཧerc felt he had extracted the most from his Ferrari.
"I think I put everything൲ in it,” he said. “It was really on the limit.
"But on the other hand, Red Bull are🐬 on another planet and we are struggling a little bit. We need to keep pushing - that is w♛hat we are doing as a team.
"The race is not going to be easy. We have a 10-place grid penalty, so we will be sta👍rting a little bit further back and hopefully, I will 🌸come back to the front as quickly as possible."
B🥃efore his retirement in Bahrain, Leclerc ra🌼n second before being overtaken by Perez.
W♎hile the overall pace of the Ferrari was fai♌ryl close to the Red Bull, tyre wear was a key weakness.
Leclerc believes Ferrari are in a better position with their﷽ race pace ahead of Sunday’s grand prix.
"The race pace looked quite good but it is very difficult to compare because in FP2 everybody has a very different programme✃, so we will see," Leclerc added.
"But it seemed a little bit better. It is not going to be because I feel like everybody is very🐻 close in their race pace."
With a sharp eye 🧸for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
