Charles Leclerc believes P8 is the maximum the Ferrari car can achieve in a worrying assessment for both the team and Lewis Hamilton.

Neither driver could crack the top 10 in Miami as Ferrari sink further down the pecking order.

Charles Leclerc laments Ferrari top pace after disappointing quali

Leclerc’s P8 was the best he believed he could achieve while Hamilton was forced to settle for P12, lamenting a decision not to use an extra set of fresh tyres to make it through Q2.

But even if he had made into the final stage, Leclerc’s words suggest Hamilton would have found it difficult to qualify much higher, such was the lack of pace of the Ferrari.

“To be honest, this weekend, I feel like we are maximizing the potential of the car,” he told media including PlanetF1.com. “It shows that the potential of the car is just not there.

“When I finished a lap again today in qualifying, I felt very satisfied with my lap, then it’s only bringing us P8.

“We’ve got to look at it. I think a track like this also highlights our weaknesses. There’s a lot of low-speed corners and both Williams are in front of us and I consider my lap a good one.

“So I think it’s pretty easy to understand where we are lacking.”

Leclerc’s Saturday got off to the worst possible start when he crashed on his way to the grid for the sprint race. He said the mistake was going out on the intermediate tyre when much of the field opted for the full wet.

“Honestly, I can drive around 100 times and there’s not much you can do as a driver,” he said.

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“I think the mistake was in the first place to be out on inter tyres, with those track conditions and this, we need to understand what we’ve done wrong as a team.

“I won’t go too deep into that, but obviously I think this was the main mistake that then cost us a lot.

“Obviously that made the whole day a lot more difficult for the mechanics, for me as well, not doing as many laps as others, but I don’t feel like I’ve paid the price of it today.

“Then in qualifying, we’re just not fast enough. We’ve got to analyse. There was something strange on our side. I had to change massively the car, the tools and everything, in order to have the kind of balance I liked.”

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