Charles Leclerc wary of the Saudi Arabian midfield brawl

• Charles Leclerc is wary of the Saudi Arabian midfield brawl.
• Leclerc acknowledges that Red Bull still has a significant lead.
• He has no idea what exactly is wrong with his SF-23.

Despite his second-fastest qualifying time for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc admits that Red Bull is “quite far ahead” of him for the race.

In Saturday evening’s qualifying at the Jeddah circuit, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc set the second-fastest time, clocking 1:28.420, 0.15s slower than Sergio Perez’s pole position time.

Leclerc acknowledges that Red Bull still has a significant lead despite the fact that the main Red Bull protagonist, Max Verstappen, did not participate in the shootout for pole position because his driveshaft failed in Q2.

Verstappen had set the pace in Q1 with Leclerc six-tenths behind, half a second ahead of Perez.

The Monégasque driver admitted when asked if his P2 time in the final qualifying segment encouraged him: Not much at all.

On the other hand, Red Bull appears to be quite a ways ahead. Our objective is to defeat them. Therefore, there is still a significant amount of work to be done.

However, I believe it is slightly better than what we anticipated for this qualifying session. We anticipated being a little further back. However, there is a lot to do.

He has no idea what exactly is wrong with his SF-23; it is simply slow.

He said, “If you ask me to pinpoint one thing. It’s very challenging. It was just that we moved very slowly. To be honest, just overall grip, as well.”

Due to engine penalties, he will start 12th on the Jeddah grid after finishing third in Control Electronics for the season.

However, despite the fact that he hopes that, unlike in Bahrain, his race pace will be better than in qualifying, he acknowledges that it will be difficult to overtake at the street circuit.

“This weekend, I believe our race pace is stronger.” Therefore, this is beneficial,” he stated.

The midfield appears to be extremely close in terms of race pace, so I’m not sure how easy it will be to overtake on this track. Additionally, having a DRS train significantly complicates matters.

But I’ll try my best and try to get back to the front as soon as I can. And we’ll see what comes of it.”

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