Leclerc warns Ferrari facing Austrian GP struggle after difficult friday

Leclerc admits Ferrari has work to do in Austria

Charles Leclerc conceded Ferrari is facing a difficult Austrian Grand Prix weekend after a disappointing Friday at the Red Bull Ring left the Scuderia searching for answers on both straight-line speed and cornering performance.

Ferrari’s wider pace picture was the real concern. Leclerc admitted the SF-25 was not where it needed to be, with the team now facing a crucial overnight analysis programme before qualifying. “I think just as a team we don’t seem to be very competitive for now, so there’s a lot of work to be done on the car in order to make sure that we get back to a more reasonable place,” he said. “But we’ll analyse and work very hard tonight, and hopefully tomorrow we can do a big step forward.”

Straight-line weakness remains a major limitation

Ferrari arrived in Austria after more encouraging recent showings, including Lewis Hamilton’s Barcelona victory, but Friday at Spielberg suggested the Scuderia has not yet turned that momentum into consistent performance. Leclerc pointed directly to the Red Bull Ring’s straights as a damaging factor.

“As we've said I think yesterday, the straights are quite a lot and we are losing so much time down the straights,” he explained.

That problem was not unexpected. More troubling for Ferrari was the loss of a strength it had usually leaned on to offset that deficit: performance through the corners. Leclerc said the team had been caught out by how little advantage it was finding there.

“I think maybe we are a bit negatively surprised by our performance in the corners at the moment, because in the corners normally we are competitive and we are not that competitive at the moment, so this is the part to fix.”

Cornering recovery is Ferrari’s realistic target

Leclerc made clear that Ferrari’s overnight priority will be to recover cornering performance, because the straight-line deficit appears far harder to address in the short term. His assessment was blunt: “I don’t think we have a fix though for the straight-line speed, and for that reason I think we’ll struggle this weekend.”

The frustration was not isolated to one side of the garage. Leclerc said neither he nor Hamilton was satisfied with the SF-25 after Friday running. “It’s been a particularly difficult Friday for the team again, so I don’t think either Lewis or me are happy with the car at the moment. But yeah, we’ll work hard and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”