‘We were quite far off’ – Leclerc urges Ferrari to ‘bring upgrades to close the gap’ after Baku

Charles Leclerc has emphasised the need for Ferrari to “bring upgrades in order to close the gap” to rivals Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren after enduring a frustrating Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Although the Monegasque’s Qualifying effort was eight tenths adrift of George Russell’s pole position lap, it still earned him a spot on the front row, and Ferrari opted to start him on soft tyres with the aim of taking an early lead.

But over the course of the first stint, Leclerc lost out to Oscar Piastri and both Red Bull drivers as he struggled to match their pace, leaving him to settle for P4 after the Aussie dropped out of the points late in the race.

“They were very strong,” Leclerc reflected. “McLaren were also strong – not maybe as strong as Red Bull, but Red Bull were particularly strong. We know they have a very strong power unit so this is a good race for them, but still.

“We were quite far off Mercedes, far off Red Bull, a bit behind McLaren – these are our competitors and it’s not new. It’s [been] quite a few races now that we’re losing a little bit of track to them, so it's important that we react to that and that we bring upgrades in order to close the gap again.”

Alongside Mercedes, who have set the benchmark for much of the season, the Scuderia chose not to introduce any updates in Baku, while McLaren and Red Bull made changes to their cars.

Their lack of progress at the street circuit left Leclerc to question whether they’ll be able to make a big enough step to beat the other frontrunners and hold onto second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

“We've got things in the pipeline, but I don't know what the others have in the pipeline,” he added. “We are going to improve the car – whether it's going to be enough to outrace them in the development programme… I don't know what they have in store.”

His team mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a similarly lonely race as he failed to move forward from his starting position of P6, with a hard-fought overtake on Lando Norris marking his main highlight before he was later passed by Kimi Antonelli.

Asked whether he was surprised not to take the fight to other cars up ahead, he said: “Not really. I was just surprised all weekend – I couldn't get the tyres working at all.

“Even through the whole race the tyres were just switching on, switching off, switching on, switching off, and so one minute the grip picks up for a second and then it drops away. We were seconds a lap slower than the cars right at the front, so there was nothing I could do.

“It's different at every track. The last track I think we were okay, but for some reason this weekend we couldn't get it working the whole weekend.”