Ferrari's Future at Stake? Leclerc Opens Up About the Team's Struggles at Silverstone

Charles Leclerc's recent performance at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone has left the Scuderia Ferrari team scrambling for answers. The Monegasque driver candidly discussed the team's current predicament, citing a general lack of speed and inconsistencies with the car as the primary reasons for his surprising early exit from qualifying. Despite showing promise early on, Leclerc was pushed out of Q2, meaning he will start from P11 in Sunday’s race.

Leclerc made it clear that Ferrari not only needs a solution but also needs it quickly. “We are just slow. We are just really slow at the moment and we have a lot of inconsistencies with the car,” he acknowledged. “I don’t think it quite helps that we are trying to also... we are trying to just assess the situation we are in at the moment and try to understand which directions we need to push into.”

Despite attempting to split the cars structurally with pre and post-Barcelona configurations for better data, Leclerc admitted that the team is struggling to optimize their weekends. “By splitting the cars, we understood a good amount to use for the future,” he said. “However, that means you don’t optimize your whole weekend as you’re focused on just trying to learn, and when you are speaking about a tenth to go to Q3, it’s all about small details. So at the moment, we are just struggling with the situation we are in, and I hope we can bounce back as soon as possible.”

Ferrari's experimentation with different specifications seems to be a necessary sacrifice when the team falls backwards, according to Leclerc. He referenced last year’s scenario at Zandvoort, indicating that such moments of trial and error can sometimes be turning points. But these periods of difficulty have stretched longer this year, and the pressure is mounting. “We shouldn’t over-panic, but it is true that now this difficult time has been there for longer than last year, so we’ve really got to react now and I hope that from the next race onwards we can re-optimize the weekend like we did at the beginning of the season,” Leclerc added.

Ferrari’s other driver, Carlos Sainz, saw a slightly better day during qualifying at Silverstone, showing promise in the initial stages. However, as the track dried, Sainz’s pace tapered off, leading to a P7 finish in Q3. “I thought we were on for a positive result, but then as the track started to dry up we started losing competitiveness. Proud and happy about Q1 and Q2, but Q3 showed that we’re still lacking,” Sainz remarked.

Sainz also identified that the out-lap issues shared with Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri exacerbated their problems. “We were all three battling to get to the flag, and obviously you’re never going to prep your tyres and everything well. But I don’t think we were on for a good result anyway,” said Sainz.

The Silverstone circuit seems particularly unforgiving to Ferrari’s current weaknesses. The high-speed nature of the track, similar to Barcelona and Austria, has highlighted gaps in competitiveness that the Scuderia must address. Both veteran and newcomer teams appear to be ahead of Ferrari, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row for Mercedes, Lando Norris showing strong form for McLaren, and Max Verstappen of Red Bull managing a P4 finish despite floor damage.

“We are clearly lacking in a track like Silverstone,” Sainz continued. “We saw the high-speed of Barcelona, and Austria we were clearly a step behind all of our competitors. Coming to the king of high-speed like Silverstone, we’re always going to struggle. But in general we’ve tried to keep it cool, we’ve tried to put in the car the best possible package. Even though we didn’t maximize everything today, it clearly tells us that we have some homework to do the next few races, and that tomorrow might not be the easiest race but we need to get the points.”

As the pressure mounts for Ferrari, the next few races will be crucial in determining their path forward. Can the iconic team overcome its current hurdles and find the speed necessary to compete at the highest level? Their performance in upcoming races will provide the answers.