Why Ferrari fell short of expectations in qualifying for the Australian GP

While McLaren had been the clear pre-event favourite for the Australian Grand Prix, the pecking order behind the papaya squad offered more surprises.

Ferrari couldn’t live up to expectations that it would be McLaren’s closest challenger followed by Red Bull, mirroring the end result of last year’s world championship.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton initially looked competitive in Saturday’s Q1, but neither driver managed to dramatically improve their lap times throughout the session. The pair shaved off one to two tenths in each mini-session, while McLaren’s Lando Norris took nearly a second off his leading Q1 time to grab pole ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

With margins as tight as expected as Formula 1’s midfield closes ranks, that wobble meant both drivers were beaten by a Racing Bulls car, driven by an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, and Alex Albon’s much improved Williams. Meanwhile, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen couldn’t believe his luck as he qualified third, fearing he would not make it onto the front two rows.

“We lost the pace a little bit throughout qualifying,” Leclerc said after qualifying seventh, one spot ahead of new team-mate Hamilton. “As soon as we started to push the car more, we found more and more inconsistency, which was a bit of a shame.

“We had to push a lot to try and make a lap time, but we didn’t really follow the track for some reason, so we’ve got to look into it. In the last sector you also have the most overheating, and I was struggling with it today a lot more than I did yesterday. I think the gaps today are bigger than what they should be.”

Hamilton was buoyed by being so close to Leclerc from the get-go despite having to adjust to Ferrari’s car philosophy, which is substantially different from the Mercedes lineage of cars he has driven since 2013.

“I was just improving every single lap, session on session,” an upbeat Hamilton said. “Big learning curve this weekend, the car was feeling so different than I’ve ever experienced here. It’s been a lot slower process for me to really build confidence in the car.

“If you look at the high-speed [corners], everywhere I’ve been down all weekend to Charles, who just had it from the minute he went out, he knew what the car does. I got a lot closer towards him in the end, and to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the car against a great qualifier [was positive].”

Hamilton echoed Leclerc’s comments over the track conditions getting away from Ferrari on a sweltering day in Melbourne, and reckons the team could have done more to adjust its car set-up and out-lap approach.

“We were definitely overheating [the tyres], so I would imagine, as the track was dropping in temperature, our approach probably should have adjusted, but we didn’t,” the seven-time world champion added.

“I just did the same thing, same prep, every session, and we probably need to be a bit more dynamic.”