‘There’s zero performance in this car’ – Leclerc and Hamilton downbeat over Ferrari’s chances in Qatar
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were once again knocked back by their performances in Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, with neither driver able to keep up with their frontrunning rivals in the highly competitive session.
While McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull all seemed to be in the fight for pole position at various points in the session, Ferrari were significantly off the pace and failed to find any improvements after the earlier Sprint.
The 19-lap event ended with Leclerc and Hamilton crossing the line in P13 and P17 respectively, with the Briton gaining one position after he started behind Lance Stroll in the pit lane.
Although he was keen to put himself in a better place for the Grand Prix, Hamilton was knocked out in Q1 and will start from 18th on the grid. With overtaking a challenge at this venue, he will have an uphill battle on his charge to return to the points.
He previously said in the Sprint that the car felt even worse than it did in Sprint Qualifying, where he was similarly eliminated in P18, but after a btterly disappointing Qualifying he admitted: “I was generally feeling better. We made changes and I was feeling better, but just wasn’t quick.”
Hamilton has struggled to find his rhythm in his first campaign with Ferrari, adding that he is “incredibly grateful for the support” and he “wouldn’t have made it through this year without” his fans.
His Monegasque team mate was equally despondent after he wound up P10 in Qualifying, more than a second adrift of Oscar Piastri’s pole lap time. A massive spin in Q3 was the result of the oversteer that he has struggled with all weekend, and he has no belief that it will improve before the race.
Asked to sum up Qualifying, he replied: “Incredibly difficult day, incredibly difficult weekend. I don’t really know what to say. It’s been extremely difficult to drive this car, to keep it on track. I’m trying absolutely everything to extract anything I can from that car, but at the moment this is the only thing that’s possible for now.
“It’s frustrating. The best thing I can do is reset for tomorrow and try to come back to the track motivated and try to do something special. Am I optimistic for tomorrow? I am not, which is quite rare. Normally I’m a very optimistic person but I have to say that this weekend, there’s zero performance in this car.”
Leclerc added that he tried to reset for the Sprint, but “it didn’t work out” as he lost four positions and was seen veering wide off the circuit multiple times.
“I hope it will work better tomorrow, but nothing that I’ve felt with this car makes me think that I will have a better feeling tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll wait and try to maximise whatever is possible tomorrow. With Safety Cars, hopefully we can get a little bit lucky – that’s probably my only hope for tomorrow.”
