Charles Leclerc left Monaco qualifying frustrated after a weekend that mixed strong pace with persistent brake problems and a costly Q3 crash. The Ferrari driver said the car’s behaviour under braking made it difficult to judge his references around the Circuit de Monaco, a problem that affected his confidence before he finished fourth.
Leclerc had looked competitive early in the weekend by topping FP1 and going second fastest in FP2. But the pace never told the full story, because he repeatedly flagged braking issues that also troubled him in Canada and carried those concerns into Saturday’s final practice and qualifying.
Brake issues shaped Leclerc’s Monaco weekend
The Ferrari driver described the feeling under braking as “horrendous” in FP3, a complaint that explained why his car never felt fully settled. At a street circuit like Monaco, where precision matters at every corner, even a small loss of confidence can quickly become a major handicap.
Leclerc said he still did not know exactly where to brake properly, which left him chasing the balance rather than attacking the lap. That uncertainty proved costly in qualifying, where the margin for error was tiny and the pressure rose with each run.
Q3 ended with a crash at Tabac
Leclerc had briefly taken provisional pole before improvements from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Lewis Hamilton pushed him down the order. His final attempt ended when he hit the barriers at Tabac corner, cutting short any chance of another improvement.
He admitted the session was messy for both him and the team on his side of the garage. Leclerc said there were “quite a lot of issues” in Q3 and noted that some of the disruption happened earlier than most people would have seen from the outside.
Leclerc points to a combination of factors
After qualifying, Leclerc said he was “very disappointed” and described the last two weekends as especially difficult. He stressed that the mistake was not down to one single cause, saying the crash came from “a combination of things” rather than only driver error.
He also said the team had to work through problems in the garage before getting back on track for the final runs. Once he had the chance to attack again, he said he tried everything on the second lap, but the lap was not completed after the contact with the wall.
Reason for optimism remains limited but real
Despite the setback, Leclerc said he expected Ferrari to find a solution for the next race. He also acknowledged that his outright speed suggested the car still had potential, but he warned that speed alone does not matter if confidence is missing.
Leclerc said he could usually feel when things clicked around Monaco, yet that feeling never fully arrived during this weekend. He added that a normal weekend would help him recover the rhythm he had felt earlier with the car, especially if the brake problems can be resolved before the next event.
Read more at: www.formula1.com