Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has admitted that the team found 2021 French Grand Prix “very difficult” as both drivers finished outside of the points.
Carlos Sainz and Leclerc qualified fifth and seventh on the grid but both drivers struggled with their race pace, with Leclerc ultimately finishing 16th after finding himself on a two-stop strategy.
Explaining why he endured “a difficult race”, Leclerc explained that his medium tyres at start and end of the race struggled for pace after only a few laps, commenting: “Towards the end, we made another stop for a fresh set of Mediums on my side, to see whether there was something we could do better.”
“But it was the same as on the first stint: okay for three to four laps followed by heavy degradation. It is a big weakness and the main thing that we have to focus on now is understanding and improving for the future.”
Sainz meanwhile made a one-stop strategy work despite finishing just outside of the points in 11th, with the Spaniard admitting that he “didn’t perform well” and just “lacked pace”, throughout with heavy tyre degradation across both medium and hard tyre compounds.
The Spaniard however did initially cling onto fifth where he had started the race but confessed that retaining that position to the flag was “impossible”, with Ferrari now set to analyse the data in a bid to understand their issues in order to address them in an Austrian double-header across the next fortnight.
Team Principal, Mattia Binotto echoed Leclerc and Sainz’s thoughts on what was a “very difficult” race in which their performance was “severely affected” by their poor tyre performance with Binotto vowing to “learn” and “move forward” from this difficult weekend.
Ferrari now sit fourth in the constructor standings and 16 points behind McLaren who reclaimed third after slipping behind the Scuderia in Baku, Azerbaijan earlier this month.
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