Charles Leclerc: Red Bull pace on 'another planet' compared to Ferrari
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari 5 Mar 2023
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc is concerned about the seemingly massive gap in race pace between them and defending F1 champions Red Bull.
The Frenchman qualified in third position for the opening race of the season in Bahrain, but even though he passed Sergio Perez's Red Bull at the start he was overtaken again and dropped back to third.
The two Red Bulls then pulled away to secure a simple one-two, while Leclerc's race abrubtly ended on lap 40 when his engine lost power.
"It's not good enough," Leclerc said after the race.
"We are far from Red Bull, so we need to push and understand what did they find during this break because they are on another planet on race pace.
"I mean, for now, we don't know. We are fast in qualifying, but we are not fast in the race, and it's not by a little. So I think Red Bull found something big somewhere, and we need to find that.
"It is very difficult to understand because obviously, the car from quali to race is not changing at all.
"But for some reason on one lap we are very close to them, and in the race we are a second away in some parts of the race. It's crazy, the difference, so we need to look into it."
Race winner Max Verstappen finished the race 38 seconds ahead of third-placed Fernando Alonso, who was a further 10 seconds ahead of Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz.
