Leclerc, who started just seventh on the grid after crashing in qualifying, finished in the same position in a race that was not affected by the safety car, 52.9 seconds behind champion Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

His Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz fared slightly better as he ran to fifth, overcoming a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Leclerc said it was difficult to predict the behavior of the car, not only over a period of time, but even within a lap.

“I just spoke to Carlos, what we lack is the consistency of the car,” he said when asked by Autosport about his difficult afternoon.

“Not even from one corner to another, in the same corner, I could have a huge oversteer balance and then a huge understeer balance, and our car is very affected by the wind.

“This year we have a car that is more wind sensitive and we have worked a lot more on that. So there is a lot of work to be done.

“Other than that, for some reason, this was closed because it wasn’t something I had the rest of the weekend, so we had to check the car, but I had a lot of bottoming out, especially in the At high speeds, that’s something I can’t fully explain because I didn’t have one yesterday. So we’ll look at that in the data.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23

Photography: Ferrari

Leclerc said the car was equally tricky on the medium-hard compound: “It’s all the same. At the end of the tough race, once the grain gets a little better, it’s a little bit better, but we just lacked speed and consistency. .

“I think it’s been similar since the start of the season because every race we’re going from one compound to another and we never know what’s going to happen with the new compound, so it’s always an unknown as to what the car will do. response, and whether the tire will be in the correct window.

“As a driver, it’s very difficult to gain confidence and adjust the way you drive because you’re going from one set to another and the car is in a completely different window.”

To Ferrari’s further dismay, the Australian GP changed the pace of Sainz’s race, but it now appears to have been a one-off.

“Again, I think it’s part of the consistency,” Leclerc said. “We sometimes feel like we’ve taken a step forward and then you get to certain conditions where it’s warmer than the rest of the race and now we’re completely out of the right window for the tyres. We need to work on that.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vassell admits it has been a difficult afternoon for Maranello.

“Overall it was a tough weekend and today was a tough race because yesterday I thought the pace was okay,” he said. “But we couldn’t put everything together.

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team principal and general manager

Photography: Alexander Trienitz / motorsport pictures

“It was very similar today, Carlos had a very good first pit stop, he lost a few seconds in the first third and 25 seconds in the last two thirds.

“We were too inconsistent in one car and from lap to lap. We had to understand why.

“With Charles it was the opposite, he was in good shape for some parts of the second period because he struggled more in the first part of the game.”

Vasseur agrees with Leclerc that inconsistency is the key issue: “We really need to focus on this because it’s critical for us. And a step we have to take.

“With Charles we were better in hard conditions and with Carlos we were much better in medium conditions. Even with the same tires from lap to lap we were a little bit inconsistent.”