Charles Leclerc claims Ferrari will find it ‘difficult’ to beat Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at Spanish GP

Charles Leclerc was only able to manage a fifth place starting position for the Spanish GP.

Charles Leclerc claims Ferrari will find it ‘difficult’ to beat Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at Spanish GP

Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Charles Leclerc (Via: Imago)

The F1 paddock rolled up to Barcelona with the predictions of Ferrari and Red Bull battling it out for the top spot. These predictions looked to be true until the onset of qualifying when McLaren made a surprising upsurge causing the prancing horses to fall behind in the pack. This has now led to Charles Leclerc fearing that a battle at the front with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen might be a bit too much for Ferrari.

The Maranello-based team emerged as a title contender after Charles Leclerc‘s home win in Monaco. This triumph led to experts claiming that Ferrari might be the one to beat around the 4.6-kilometer track in Spain and take on the battle to the might of Max Verstappen and Red Bull. However, this soon changed as the Italian outfit seemed tenths of the pace, while Lando Norris edged the Dutchman for pole position.

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Despite high expectations, Leclerc had predicted Red Bull to be ahead of them. Subsequently, after witnessing the pace of SF-24 claims the race to be a tough one for the Italian squad.

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I’m very disappointed with today's performance. [Lando]Norris and [Max]Verstappen? I think it's going to be difficult to catch up with them, but we have a race to play with Mercedes.
Charles Leclerc said post Barcelona qualifying

The Monegasque admitted that he was dejected with the subpar qualifying from the team. Furthermore, he reckoned that catching up to Verstappen and Norris might be a bold prediction and claimed Mercedes to be the target for them to beat in the race.

Charles Leclerc is not shocked by Ferrari’s performance around Catalunya

While Norris and McLaren were stunned by the Brit as he pulled out a stonking lap to bag the pole position, on the contrary, the Leclerc was not shocked by Ferrari’s slump. He claimed the qualifying to set the precedent for the following races.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)
Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)

Leclerc gave his verdict on how Ferrari’s season might progress.

We are more than 3 tenths behind Norris, it's not crazy especially since we often say that Barcelona is quite representative for the rest of the season. Now we have to try to maximize the weekend and try to go for big points anyway.
Charles Leclerc said in the post-qualifying interview

The Monegasque pointed out the fact that he was over three-tenths behind Norris. However, this was not something out of the ordinary as he deemed Catalunya to be a representative track, which might set up a trend that Tifosi may not like.

Despite his disappointment, Leclerc was filled with a positive attitude and set his sights on the race tomorrow. So if a tough battle enrages between the reigning champion and the young Brit at the sharp end, Ferrari might sniff a far victory closing in.

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