Charles Leclerc shares cryptic message as he hints at a mysterious issue hurting Ferrari

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari have had a troublesome start to the Brazilian GP weekend after two impressive races in Austin and Mexico. The Monegasque qualified eighth for the Sprint race and ultimately finished P5, a fair way from where he would have liked to be, and revealed after the sprint race that both the prancing horses are plagued by an issue halting them back.

After qualifying eighth, finishing fifth in a 24-lap race might seem a good result on paper. However, this result was aided by Oscar Piastri's crash that occurred on lap six of the shortened race.

So, after scoring four points during the sprint and conceding points to the Mercedes duo, Leclerc reflected on his outing at the Interlagos Circuit and explained the reason behind Ferrari's lack of pace in a cryptic message.

The Monegasque told Sky Sports F1 in his post-race comments:

"This weekend has been very-very tough. Unfortunately, we have an issue on both cars that we cannot quite explain what’s going on there. We are losing a lot of lap time on the straight. We know we have higher downforce than others, but that doesn’t explain the gap that we see on the straight. So there's something off that I hope we can understand before qualifying." "I'll experiment anyway with the setup because at the moment we are not where we want to be, and I don't think we can be much worse than qualifying yesterday."

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and seventh at the sprint race, respectively. With Kimi Antonelli and George Russell taking the checkered flag inside the top three, it helped Mercedes to leapfrog Ferrari in the interim constructors' standings for the second position.

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Charles Leclerc asserts second position is "not enough" for Ferrari

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Brazil race weekend - Source: Getty

Charles Leclerc has been with Ferrari since 2019. The squad has been the runner-up multiple times over the past few years, but it has not returned to the top of the table since 2008.

McLaren has already rounded out the 2025 constructors' championship, and the other teams are now squaring off for the remaining spots on the table. While many might deem a runner-up result for Ferrari would be an elated result, Leclerc thinks otherwise, as he said (via F1's official website):

"It’s not good enough, no. I think when you drive for such a team, the only thing that is good enough is to win."

Meanwhile, the 28-year-old, much like the rest of the grid, would be gearing up for qualifying to commence and give his all to secure a solid starting position for the Grand Prix tomorrow (November 9).

Edited by Geetansh Pasricha