Charles Leclerc admits that it was a positive surprise that Ferrari’s deficit to Red Bull in qualifying in Bahrain was “closer than what it looks on the timesheets”.
The Monegasque driver wound up two-tenths adrift of Verstappen’s benchmark time in the top 10 shootout, but his Q2 time would have secured pole position.
Leclerc had disagreed with Ferrari’s decision to lean on the side of caution and head out onto the track in the closing stages of Q1 on brand-new Soft rubber.
Although he abandoned that second attempt when it became clear he would advance, Leclerc was left with one fresh set of Softs compared to Verstappen in Q3.
Asked whether Ferrari’s conservativeness in the opening segment had cost him a chance to usurp Verstappen, Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week: “I mean with ‘if’, we could have done lots of things, but at the end we are P2 and three-tenths off.
“I think it’s closer than what it looks on the timesheets, but this is a good thing.
“We were expecting Red Bull to have a bit more margin than what there was today, so we are a bit closer than what we thought.
“But the biggest question mark is obviously tomorrow in the race. I’m pretty sure they have a bit more margin than what we’ve seen today. But again, let’s wait and see.”
Leclerc admits that he could have found between two and three-tenths in the final stage to rival Verstappen’s pace, which came as a shock to him and Ferrari.
“I think it is pretty in line with what we expected, and if anything it is a bit better than what we expected because, again, there was 0.2s or 0.3s in Q3 we could have found – realistically in the car we could have gone close to Max,” Leclerc answered when asked if he was shocked with the close margin to Red Bull.
“A bit better than what we expected, but let’s see tomorrow.”
Ferrari retained a deficit through the opening part of the lap in qualifying before the SF-24 clawed back the lost time on its rivals through the second and third sectors.
Leclerc concedes that Ferrari has encountered trouble through the first turns across the weekend, but hints that it could serve to be advantageous in the race tomorrow.
“We have been struggling all weekend [in the first sector] and we cannot really find the answer to it,” he added. “Hopefully it’ll be different in the race run tomorrow.
“It is probably due to tyre preparation differences across the field and that might play a role into it. We tried but we are still struggling quite a bit in Turns 1, 2 and 3.”
Ferrari has placed a huge emphasis on constructing a more compliant car this season that can retain its strong one-lap pace through the duration of a longer stint.
With Ferrari having addressed its wind sensitivity issues from last term, Leclerc has reiterated he is more optimistic about the marque’s potential in race conditions.
“The feeling is much better compared to last year,” Leclerc said regarding Ferrari’s race prospects.
“Last year whenever we had used tyres , the car will become very, very difficult to drive, the balance will be completely out of place compared to the short runs.
“This year, we are a bit more, we are in the right window now in the long runs, so it feels quite a lot better.
“It helps us to be more consistent, however again, for the competitiveness, we’ll see tomorrow.”
