'We don't have any magical solution' declares Charles Leclerc as Ferrari resigned to chase McLaren during the weekend

Charles Leclerc cut a sorry figure after the first day of running in the F1 Belgian GP as he conceded that Ferrari was losing out to McLaren everywhere on the track. The driver has not had a strong run since he won the race in Monaco.

His best result has been a P4 finish that he achieved in Hungary. The first day in Belgium saw Leclerc be the fastest driver in the chasing group behind Max Verstappen and the McLaren duo. He was, however, a few tenths behind the trio and admitted that the car was leaking time everywhere compared to McLaren.

While Friday was dry, qualifying is supposed to be in wet weather while the race is expected to be dry. Ferrari has struggled in the wet weather, and with the team struggling to get on top of the upgrades, Leclerc admitted that there was no magical solution for the team's struggles. As quoted by Racingnews365, he said,

“We’ve got to focus on ourselves, find the right compromise for tomorrow which will probably be wet and Sunday which will be dry. We're on it, we still have quite a lot of meetings to go through and hopefully we find a compromise for tomorrow and Sunday."

He further said,

“We're struggling to McLaren a little bit everywhere. We don’t have any magical solution but we will give it our best. It’s the last race before the holidays so I hope we can finish on a high.”

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Charles Leclerc reflects on a very difficult day

Looking back at the day, Charles Leclerc admitted that the day was very hard to understand with a lot of variance in tires and conditions in general. The driver is a former winner on this track and was in pole position last year as well. Nevertheless, he didn't look very confident about his prospects for the weekend, as he said,

“It was a very difficult day to understand to be honest, there was a lot of difference in pace, different conditions, different tyres as well. Everybody was on a different plan. It’s been quite a few years now that it’s difficult to understand the picture on Friday with this generation of car. Today it’s even more so.”

With McLaren and Red Bull a step ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari, a podium might just be a step too far for Leclerc, even as he hasn't been in that position since his win in Monaco.

Ferrari has struggled a bit whenever temperatures have fallen or rain has intervened. The car has struggled to get the tires up to optimum temperatures and, hence, has not performed at an optimal level. With qualifying expected to be affected by rain, the Italian team will be bracing itself for damage limitation based on recent history.