Leclerc sees Verstappen approaching: 'We had more trouble with that'

Ferrari started the weekend in Florida well with a red front row start for the GP. Leclerc managed to take pole and Carlos Sainz was able to cover his back at the start. The cover was short-lived, however, because at the start Verstappen had already grazed his former teammate. What followed was a battle between Leclerc and Verstappen, which was won by the Dutchman.

Leclerc sees Verstappen approaching

"I think on the Hard, we were we were very competitive or at least as competitive as Max, and after the Safety Car I really thought that we will have a shot to actually take back the lead – but it wasn't enough. But yeah, it's like this again, I think we’ll have to analyse the end of the run on the Medium, which is the weak point of this race," Leclerc said at the post-race press conference.

Indeed, the Monegasque lost a lot of ground in his first stint. Verstappen was able to easily pass the Ferrari driver halfway through his stint on the medium tyre and then also created a gap of seven seconds. The safety car closed this gap, but it did show a clear difference between the two cars.

Red Bull gains ground

On the straight, Ferrari have been losing ground on Red Bull since the start of the season, but Leclerc also saw problems in the corners this weekend. "I have to say that I was quite surprised that we were struggling quite a bit more than them in the slow speed corners. So, that was also a weakness on the Medium tyres, and we need to look at that."

In general, Ferrari has a tougher time on the softer tire, Leclerc points out. In qualifying, the team gets the tyre to work, but in the race the tyre wears down faster than its competitor. The team in Maranello will therefore have to analyse the data well to avoid this on a demanding track for the tyres like Barcelona.