Leclerc: “Embarrassing” Ferrari performance in Las Vegas Qualifying
Charles Leclerc labeled Ferrari’s performance in the Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying as “embarrassing” and pointed out the team’s persistent problems in rainy conditions since his arrival. Leclerc could only manage ninth place for Saturday’s race. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, finished in last position, which could mean Ferrari’s last chance to avoid a winless season in 2025. This week, Ferrari’s stars downplayed recent critical comments from Ferrari president John Elkann, who had suggested they needed to “focus on driving and talking less” and improve their performances.The Friday session began under heavy rain, forcing the teams to use extreme rain tires instead of slicks, something uncommon in the recent past of F1. Leclerc explained that his frustration with Ferrari’s performance in wet conditions dates back to his arrival at the team in 2019.“My God, embarrassing, fuck, embarrassing. Fuck, I don’t understand how we can be so far off the pace… There’s no grip, zero grip,” Leclerc declared on the radio.
Charles Leclerc
“We’re doing something wrong. I have no idea what it is, because we’ve turned the car upside down. We’ve had Lewis and, obviously, Carlos before [from] other teams who could tell us the feeling they had with the other cars. It’s extremely difficult to find grip with our car. Very, very unpredictable with our car, which makes us make a lot of mistakes. It’s not that we’re not trying, because as a team we’ve tried absolutely everything. For some reason, we still haven’t found our way.” Hamilton, considered a master in rainy conditions, also struggled from the beginning, being eliminated in the first session.“Unfortunately, it’s not just today. It’s been like this since I joined the team; we’ve had significant problems finding grip in those conditions. It’s very frustrating because it’s probably been my biggest strength in the junior categories and then…”
Charles Leclerc
“The car felt great in Free Practice 3 and, honestly, I thought it was going to go well. Yes, I was very, very excited. I thought we would finally have a good day, but it wasn’t”, said Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton
