AUSTIN, Texas -- Charles Leclerc has said Ferrari needs to find answers to why it appears to struggle so much compared to its rivals to extract the most out of Q3 after another deflating qualifying performance at the United States Grand Prix.
Ferrari had looked strong going into Saturday's session, with Lewis Hamilton going fastest in final practice, with teammate Leclerc third.
Both faded, with Leclerc settling for fourth and Hamilton fifth after Q3 in qualifying.
Leclerc was disappointed after the session and left wondering what might have been.
"When I look at my Q2 lap, which I think was only maybe a tenth [of a second] behind Kimi [Antonelli], I was expecting we were only going to step [up] in Q3 which unfortunately never came," he said.
"The tyre window is the same for everybody, but our car for some reason, it's very difficult to put some heat in those tyres which is a good thing for us on a Sunday, but in qualifying it makes it very tricky."
Leclerc said the team is puzzled about why it seems to be a recurring theme.
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He added: "As soon as you go into Q3 and you go and push for the last one-hundredths or two-hundredths per corner, that's where maybe the issues of the car, the balance issues that you are having are standing out a little bit more. And for us it's very much on a knife-edge and as soon as we start going a little bit over then we are losing quite a lot of lap time.
"It's difficult to say, I mean I haven't driven other cars as well, but as a tendency I feel like it's very often the case that we get to Q3 and we fall short of what we expected when we expect to go and gain a tenth and a half in Q3. We sometimes struggle to get that, so it's an assumption more than a certainty."
On whether it can only be fixed in time for next season, Leclerc said: "No, but it's a compromise, you have to choose between the race and qualifying.
"I think there are some solutions to that, it's just we've got to see what else we have to compromise for those solutions."