Charles Leclerc admits Ferrari "have some work to do" on race pace despite leading Friday Practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Monegasque was quickest in both sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, albeit with only three-tenths covering the top five drivers as Mercedes showed improvements.
However, in the long run at the end of FP2, tyre wear once again seemed to be Leclerc and Ferrari's Achilles heel in the hot conditions.
"Our qualifying runs don’t look bad, but we have some work to do," the current championship leader conceded.
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"In particular on our race pace and on tyre management, the stints we did on the soft compound felt better than those on the mediums.
"Tonight we will analyse our latest data to find where we can improve on this track. The conditions are very different to the last time we were here during winter testing."
Based on the data, Leclerc was several tenths off Max Verstappen's average pace during Friday's race simulation, with Mercedes also close to matching Ferrari's pace.
Medium tyres average lap times (longrun) according to Sky Germany
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) May 20, 2022
Max 12 laps = 26.0
Charles 11 laps = 26.68
Lewis 7 laps = 26.5
George 8 laps = 26.6#SpanishGP #FP2
And Leclerc acknowledged a repeat of Miami, when Ferrari locked out the front row in qualifying but lost out to the Dutchman on Sunday, was possible.
"I don’t want to call that a fear but let’s say it is definitely the priority to work on that and to get better because at the moment we are just not strong in the race pace," he stated.
"I mean on the short run we looked strong but the high fuel run looks very difficult for now. We will have to work very hard and hopefully, we find quite a bit of pace for tomorrow."
As for teammate Carlos Sainz, he was fourth quickest in Practice 2 and once again struggled to match the speed of Leclerc.
"A bit of a tricky FP2 compared to a positive FP1, as we struggled a bit with tyres and balance after the changes we made," he explained.
"It seems like there is a lot of degradation with the heat, [that] could be crucial for the race, so we’ll also keep an eye on that
"We need to look at it and find the correct adjustments for tomorrow, but we’ve got plenty of data and I’m sure we’ll find a more comfortable set-up."
The Spaniard though is feeling the energy from his home crowd and Barcelona welcomed fans back for the first time since 2019.
"I’m very impressed with the number of fans in the grandstands today," he said. "It’s fantastic to see all these people supporting us, and their good vibes are a huge motivation!"
