Charles Leclerc said he was confused about the steep loss of performance on his Ferrari, which caused him to drop out of qualifying for the Spanish GP in 19th.
Leclerc had looked competitive throughout the weekend, but his pace evaporated in Q1 amid tricky track conditions.
However, speaking to the media after the race, Leclerc said that both he and the team were baffled as to what had caused the sudden drop-off.
“I don’t have the answers now. I think we’ll have to check the data. But most of all, check the car because there was definitely something strange. I nearly lost it during the red flag and I was at 70 kph and there was just no warning,” Leclerc said.
“The left-hand corners were really, really bad. And I first thought that it was a tire. So we went for a new set of tires.
“And on the new set of tires, it was exactly the same feeling, right-hand corners really good. Left-hand corners, completely off. We’ll have to check.
“But I will be very, very surprised if we don’t find something in front of you change your setup between the three quarry a tiny bit, but as you always do. So this is not the reason it’s not like it was a setup thing.”
‘Something is off’
Leclerc said he was certain that there was an undiagnosed issue with the car which had caused him to struggle so badly during qualifying.
The Scuderia were looking to challenge Red Bull and Max Verstappen for pole position, but Carlos Sainz could ultimately only get second.
“I will wait tonight, but I am quite confident that there’s something not the way. We lost some time there,” he said.
“But to be honest, I don’t think it would have made it any bit better. We were just completely slow.
I was not even that surprised when I when they told me I was out of q1. I was very surprised with the feeling, which is why I said unbelievable.”
