Ferrari performance ‘not where we want it to be’ says Leclerc after P4 in Hungary

Charles Leclerc was "relatively happy" after taking P4 in the Hungarian Grand Prix – his best result since winning in Monaco back in May – but was left concerned Ferrari are slipping further back from the current pace setters.

Having lined up in sixth on the grid, Leclerc at one stage found himself closing in on Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s battle for third. While Hamilton remained ahead – and Verstappen slipped down to fifth following contact between the two world champions – Leclerc crossed the line in fourth.

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“I’m relatively happy,” the Ferrari driver said after the race. “I mean, I’m never happy with a P4 but if you do a step back, considering the tough few races I’ve had in the last few weekends… We came here saying we need to maximise the team points, we need to maximise the car, and I think we did that today, so on that I’m happy.

“On the other hand, I’m not happy because the performance is not where we want it to be. McLaren is quite a far bit ahead now, Red Bull was a bit closer than what we thought today. But I think we had a pretty good race pace, we were just a bit stuck because it’s a track where you cannot really overtake.”

Asked about the current mindset within the team – and whether there are fixes on the way, or if they were expecting some time to pass before they can catch Red Bull and McLaren – Leclerc looked ahead to the next race on the calendar in Belgium as he explained: “I think Spa will be a real test for the issues we’ve had in the last few races.

“It feels like a small step forward here. However, it’s not a track that put in evidence the weaknesses of our car, so let’s wait for Spa and see how much of a step forward we’ve done.”

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Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, slipped backwards in the order at the Hungaroring, with a poor start dropping him from his grid position of fourth down to a final result of sixth.

Quizzed on whether his launch had ultimately set the tone for the rest of his race, Sainz answered: “Yeah, exactly. Unfortunately [it was my] first bad start of the season and at a place that is very costly.

“We need to analyse whether it was my mistake on the procedure, or we just simply got it wrong with the clutch settings and we triggered too much wheelspin for the grip that there was out there today. We’ll do a good analysis, one bad start per season is okay – it’s unfortunate that it happened here in Hungary.”

Given Verstappen’s issues later on in the Grand Prix, Sainz believes that he could potentially have been in contention for a podium had he not gone backwards off the line.

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“You’re pretty much fixed on your position after there [from the start],” the Spaniard said. “That’s why we would have made it P4 after Turn 1, I think P4 was on the cards today or P3 even with Max’s troubled race.

“So a shame because I felt good in the car all weekend, it is true that today it was a bit trickier with the balance and in high fuel, but the pace on the last stint was a bit better and I could catch everyone back up, but it was a bit too late.”