Leclerc Plans Major Car Changes After Rough São Paulo Practice

Charles Leclerc has promised significant changes to his car after a practice session at the São Paulo Grand Prix that left him unhappy with the Ferrari. The Monegasque driver said the running had been one of the worst feelings he has experienced in practice, and he made clear that the team will not simply tweak things and carry on.

Setup work is the usual first response when a driver struggles to get the car to behave over a single lap or through a long run. Changes to the balance, suspension or aerodynamic settings can alter how the car handles across the whole weekend, so a driver who calls for "significant" changes is signalling that the current package is not doing what he needs. Leclerc's comments suggest the problem was not a small detail that could be fixed with a minor adjustment.

For Ferrari, the timing is awkward. Practice is the window in which teams gather data and try to lock in a direction for qualifying and the race, and a rough session can quickly shape the rest of the weekend. Interlagos is a demanding circuit with a mix of fast corners, tight sections and a track surface that changes as the weekend goes on, which makes it harder to predict how a set-up will behave once conditions shift.

Leclerc's frankness is also typical of how he tends to talk about difficult sessions: direct, without excuses, and focused on what the team can change before the next run. Whether the revised set-up pays off will only become clear once the cars return to the track, but his comments make clear that Ferrari has work to do before it can feel comfortable with its car in São Paulo.