Leclerc: When you have a car that is bouncing, you cannot go to the limit

Leclerc is one of the best qualifiers on the Formula 1 grid, and is known for his last minute out of the blue qualifying laps, something related to his all out driving style.

But recently, with Ferrari going back with car upgrades that made the SF-24 bounce more, as it is proving tricky to develop and upgrade the current generation of F1 cars with ground effect, something Red Bull tech boss Pierre Wache also touched on.

As a result of this Leclerc has struggled and become more error prone. He reflected on the topic with Motorsport.com.

He said: "From Spain onwards, I think this was more the turning point where we brought something on the car, which the numbers, as I've always said, were there.

"However, it induced quite a lot of bouncing that we've been struggling with. And on my side, specifically, I went very aggressive in the last four races with set-up, especially, trying to find solutions for that.

"I've always been [aiming] to go for the last hundredths, and I think this is the approach that pays off whenever things are as they should be," Leclerc pointed out, adding: "Whenever you have a car, that is bouncing, by example, you cannot go too close to the limit because the car is doing more unpredictable things, and you've got to keep more margin.

"Which is something that I know I'm a bit... yes, it's not my approach, and so always, I'm going to pay a little bit more of the price whenever these things happen.

"However, I don't think that this was the main issue in the last few races. It was more about putting the car in very extreme places in order to get something out of it and to understand and that was the main reason of the lack of performance of the last few races.

"I will put that mostly on bouncing. The bouncing is what created the inconsistencies that we have seen in the last few races, and made us struggle a bit more than before that," the Monegasque concluded.

Leclerc is currently third in the 2024 F1 Constructors' Championship with 177 points, 22 points behind Lando Norris in second. Max Verstappen leads the standings with 277 points to his name.