Charles Leclerc: Ferrari must analyse ‘good surprise’ after ‘miracle’ podium

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari need to find an explanation for their “miracle” podium at the F1 Dutch Grand Prix.

After qualifying sixth with a gap of nearly a second to McLaren’s Lando Norris, Leclerc had downplayed Ferrari’s chances of progressing in Sunday’s grand prix.

But the Monegasque immediately gained a place from Sergio Perez and demonstrated strong pace throughout the race to beat Oscar Piastri’s McLaren to the final spot on the podium in third.

Leclerc admitted he was very surprised with what he described as being a “miracle” podium, given Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness on Saturday.

“I said that it would need a miracle for us to stand on the podium today. Well, it happened!” Leclerc told Sky.

“It’s a really good surprise. I’m really happy. I’m never really satisfied with a P3 but I think starting from P6 and with the very low expectations we had coming into the race, we should be satisfied with the race.

“However, as much as we analyse everything when we have a bad surprise on Sunday, I think we have got to analyse when we have a good surprise on a Sunday.

“If we want to be consistently on top and consistently at our best level, we’ve got to understand what is the right thing that we’ve done to these cars, because it’s not only me, Carlos was also very strong.

“So there is clearly something in the car that we did right. Unfortunately as a team I don’t think we have that explanation.”

Carlos Sainz underlined Ferrari’s improved performance in the race as he rose from 11th on the grid to finish fifth.

Asked what he thought had contributed to the team exceeding expectations, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: “From the beginning of the season, it’s [been] very, very tight.

“It doesn’t matter if you are at the front of the group or the back, it’s still tight. This weekend Lando is in a different league but behind Lando I think it’s tight.

“I think also since the beginning of the season we are probably in better shape in race mode than qualifying mode. Today, overall, we had the discussion that it’s important for the team to do the best with what we have.

“It’s never impossible but we knew it would be difficult to win with Lando this weekend, but we had to a good job, to do the best with what we can do and I’m really, really pleased with the job done by the team.

“From the start, to the strategy, to the pit stops and tyre management, I think we did the maximum of what we could do and it’s a very good result for the team.”

F1 now heads to Monza for next weekend's Italian Grand Prix - Ferrari's home race.