"We are struggling to optimize the weekend" - Charles Leclerc reviews his disappointing British Grand Prix F1 qualifying

Charles Leclerc claimed that Ferrari struggled with the car's optimization during the qualifying of the 2024 F1 British GP. He stated that he missed getting into Q3 because of his SF-24's configuration.

The Friday practice sessions at Silverstone saw Ferrari splitting their two cars' configuration. One of the cars was set up according to the configurations in Imola and the other was based on the upgrades introduced in Barcelona, Spain. Both drivers spent most of their time practicing with these configurations. However, a wet practice session early on Saturday did not give Leclerc the chance to practice on the Silverstone configuration in dry conditions.

Leclerc stated that this was one of the reasons he could not make it to Q3. He missed the final qualifying phase by a very small margin (0.1 seconds) and is set to start the race in P11. Leclerc said (via Motorsport Week):

"We are just struggling a lot at the moment. I felt like yesterday we learned a good amount for the team by splitting the cars. That comes also with the fact that you are not really optimizing your weekend and focusing on performance only. Obviously, today we lose the Q3 by a tenth and it was the first time I was driving with this configuration on the dry after FP3 in the wet."

"So, all in all, we are struggling to optimize the weekend," he added.

The 26-year-old also spoke about the issues he faced with the car during the qualifying session and stated that the car was "slow."

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Charles Leclerc claims he faced "inconsistencies" with the car during qualifying

Ever since winning the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this season, Leclerc's performance has seemingly taken a hit. He started the Canadian GP in P11, followed by P5 for the race in Spain, and then P6 in Austria. Following the trend, he will be starting the British GP in P11.

Talking about the issues he faced during the session, Leclerc claimed that the car was "slow" and he faced certain "inconsistencies." He was quoted as saying (via F1 news service):

"We are just slow. We are just really slow at the moment and we have a lot of inconsistencies with the car."

"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 are the directions in which we need to push into," he added.

Charles Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, will be starting the race in P7. The Mercedes drivers excelled during the qualifying session with a front-row lockup.