"The upgrade was a good step forward," Leclerc hails Ferrari's Barcelona upgrade package
Originally published by F1Technical
Charles Leclerc’s qualifying session for the Barcelona‑Catalunya Grand Prix collapsed in a single, costly moment at Turn 4, ending what had been one of his most convincing Saturdays in weeks.
After showing strong pace throughout practice and comfortably progressing through Q1 and Q2, the Ferrari driver pushed a fraction too hard on his first Q3 attempt, drifted onto the dusty outer line and lost the rear, sliding into the barriers.
The impact ended his session immediately and condemned him to P10 on Sunday — a result that left him unusually raw and self‑critical.
Leclerc admitted that the mistake came exactly where he expected the challenge to be. He explained that he had been on the limit everywhere, with Turn 4 standing out as the only corner where Ferrari was not quite the fastest.
“I released the brakes earlier. I think we were close to being the fastest car every corner apart from Turn 4,” he said, adding that he had gone into the lap fully aware that perfection was required.
“I knew it was a weakness, I knew I had to make everything perfect for that lap. I tried, but I obviously regret it and again I feel very much ashamed.”
The Monegasque described the error with characteristic honesty, acknowledging that the attempt to carry extra speed into the corner simply pushed him onto the dirty part of the track.
“I tried to carry some more speed into Turn 4, but then I went onto the dirty side of the track and lost the rear. There’s not much more to say, it was a driving error.”
What made the moment even harder to accept was the contrast with the previous two race weekends. Leclerc explained that in Canada and Monaco he had been dealing with a difficult car configuration that limited what he could do behind the wheel.
“The last two races, Canada and Monaco, I was in a very tricky configuration to deal with, that didn't make it easy and Monaco ended the way it ended. That was already very difficult to take and accept, knowing that I could do little with it.”
Barcelona, however, offered no such mitigating factors. “But this weekend there was none of that. The car was great, the feeling with the car was amazing and I didn't deliver. If anything, it's a lot worse than that, I put it into the wall. So there's no excuses, I just feel ashamed.”
Despite the disappointment, Leclerc stressed that Ferrari’s upgrade package had delivered a genuine step forward and that the underlying pace of the SF‑24 remained a source of optimism.
“The upgrade was a good step forward and I will push to make up as many positions as possible and bring home a positive result for the team.”
He also highlighted that the confidence he had been missing in recent weeks had finally returned. “The only positive I can take is that the feeling that I have in the car is back and for tomorrow I feel optimistic. But I need to show that. I just need to do the perfect race.”