Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari’s gap to McLaren is “bigger than what they should be” after the Italian outfit struggled in Melbourne.

Both Ferrari drivers could not crack the top five at the opening qualifying session of the year while McLaren looked a step ahead out in front.

Charles Leclerc gives assessment after Ferrari quali struggles

Four teams were thought to be pole contenders going into the season but McLaren have quickly emerged as the favourite, taking a front-row lockout to begin 2025 just as they ended 2024.

But while the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was P3 in Abu Dhabi quali, Leclerc and new team-mate Lewis Hamilton ended the session in Melbourne in seventh and eighth.

Leclerc said that as the team started to push the car, they found more “inconsistency.”

“As soon as we started to push the car more and more and more and we found more and more inconsistency, which was a bit of a shame,” he said. “We lost a little bit of pace throughout qualifying.

“Q1 was good. Q2, a little bit less good than Q3 we had to push a lot to try and make a lap time but we didn’t really follow the track for some reason.

“We’ve lost relative competitiveness compared to yesterday.

The result was Ferrari starting on Sunday closer to Williams than they are to McLaren but Leclerc believes the gap will not be representative for the whole season.

“I hope we are fighting closer to McLaren. The feeling is that we are closer, just in Q3 we lost our balance, we lost the window.

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“And when the gaps are so tight, then it’s very difficult to put a lap together as a driver. So I think the gaps today are bigger than what they should be.

“It’s only the first race of the season and it’s only a starting point. It’s going to be a very long season. Just got to stay calm, maximize points and work from there.

“I think this car has a lot of potential, but for now, we don’t seem to be seeing the right window.”

The saving grace for Leclerc is the potential rain that has been forecast on Sunday and the driver said that would put every team into a “complete unknown.”

“Everybody’s going into a complete unknown,” he remarked. “Nobody has done one lap in the rain with these cars. So lots to learn and I hope we’ll be on the good side of things.”

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