Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton gave a downbeat assessment of Ferrari\u2019s performance during Sprint Qualifying at the United States Grand Prix, with Leclerc stating that the squad are \u201cso far behind now\u201d after ending the session towards the bottom of the top 10.<\/p>\n
After taking victory at the Circuit of The Americas back in 2024, Leclerc<\/a> did not seem to be experiencing the same fortune when Friday\u2019s action got underway, having at one stage found himself at risk of being eliminated in SQ1.<\/p>\n The Monegasque eventually wound up in P10<\/a> after struggling to match the squad\u2019s rivals in SQ3 and, when asked afterwards about where he had lost time on his lap, Leclerc \u2013 who missed out on some running during the day\u2019s earlier practice session<\/a> due to an issue on his car being investigated in the garage \u2013 responded: \u201cEverywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cMy lap was clean in SQ3, I don\u2019t regret much [of] what I\u2019ve done in my lap. Maybe [with] a little bit more mileage this morning on the medium [tyre], you can fine-tune the car a little bit better \u2013 there might be a tenth in that or a tenth and a half, I don\u2019t know. But it\u2019s not enough \u2013 we are so far behind now.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of whether the Ferrari<\/a> team can make any changes throughout the rest of the weekend to ensure a better race come Sunday, Leclerc was not hopeful about the possibility of this happening.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be very surprised if we found something that will make us [take] such a jump,\u201d the 28-year-old conceded. \u201cI hope I\u2019m wrong, but unfortunately for now it just seems like it\u2019s the potential of our car.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very surprising the teams that are strong this weekend, apart from obviously the McLaren<\/a> and the Red Bull<\/a> which is expected, but you\u2019ve got Nico [Hulkenberg]<\/a> in front [in P4] that has done probably an amazing lap but he\u2019s been consistently fast this weekend, so we just need to understand if they understood something that we didn\u2019t, but today was a very poor day.\u201d<\/p>\n