Leclerc rages over Ferrari team radio after sprint qualifying issue

Charles Leclerc complained about the deployment of his Ferrari Formula 1 car after sprint qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Monegasque endured a frustrating sprint qualifying session in Shanghai as he ended up sixth and a full second off the dominant pace set by Mercedes’ George Russell.

Leclerc was outqualified by both McLarens and Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who took fourth, with the seven-time world champion some four tenths quicker.

After SQ3 ended, Leclerc vented his rage over team radio after reporting he lost a heap of lap time on the back straight due to deployment issues with Ferrari’s power unit.

“What the hell is happening? I lost like four tenths on the back straight,” Leclerc bemoaned.

Leclerc was visibly annoyed when he spoke to media after sprint qualifying, lamenting what had been “a very frustrating session.

“Unfortunately when I had a good lap I lost half a second on the back straight for whatever reason on the second lap in SQ3,” he explained.

“So we will analyse that and try to understand what has gone wrong.”

Despite the large deficit to Mercedes, Leclerc remains hopeful that Ferrari can be more competitive over a race distance.

“It doesn’t really change the picture from where we are,” Leclerc said.

“In the race we should be relatively a bit stronger than where we are now in qualifying, however, Mercedes seems to be a step ahead in qualifying.”

Ferrari need more power to match Mercedes

Leclerc admitted he is perplexed by the advantage Mercedes currently boasts with its engine and deployment, especially over one lap.

“For some reason, the Mercedes power unit finds a lot of lap time,” he added.

“We don’t quite find that amount of lap time yet in qualifying, but in the race we are closer. So I’m hopeful we can come back tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton admitted Ferrari needs to “push so hard” in order to close the power gap to Mercedes.

“We have a lot of work to do. We really have to push so hard back in Maranello to improve on power,” he said.

“It was something that I think we were conscious of last year, that we thought that Mercedes started earlier than us or the rest – which they did last time [in 2014] as well. So they gave done a fantastic job and we’ve got to push to be able to close that gap.

“The car feels great and I think we can compete with them through corners, but when you are down on power it’s just the way it is.”