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Leclerc: I need to change to fix tyre weakness compared to Vettel

Charles Leclerc says he must find out why he is harder on tyres than Ferrari Formula 1 team mate Sebastian Vettel, and is prepared to drive less aggressively if necessary

In the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, Leclerc suffered more with tyre issues than Vettel and lost pace at the end of his stints.

Leclerc ran in third place for much of the race until Vettel eventually caught and passed him in the closing laps to claim the final podium spot.

Having put his slump to fourth down to "struggling with tyres again", Leclerc admitted that this had become a trend that he needs to resolve by whatever means possible.

"There's definitely something that Seb is doing better than me in the long runs, when there's degradation," said Leclerc.

"I think I need to understand something on my side. I've been struggling more, and have more tyre degradation compared to Seb, and I believe it's also coming from driving.

"Maybe I'm driving a bit too aggressively now in races, so I need to understand and analyse and try to improve for the next races.

"I'm pretty sure that Seb is doing something better than me there, so I need to understand and improve that.

"That's a few races where I'm quite quick in qualifying, but towards the end of the race I seem to struggle a bit more.

"I need to understand what I can do with my driving style to help that, or with the car balance to have a little bit of a compromise between the two, because at the end it's the race when you score points."

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto agreed that race management is one of Vettel's strengths relative to Leclerc.

"Seb is in the races always very strong," he said.

"He's aware that it's important for him to capitalise on his race pace. So when you may do some mistakes like at Silverstone that's not the best.

"But apart from that I'm very happy for that, he's experienced and knows how to manage the tyres.

"I think that is really his strength, and he's doing very well in that respect."


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