Charles Leclerc reckons he's worked out why Mercedes keeps pulling away on the straights, and honestly, it's a bit depressing for Ferrari. The Scuderia's been running with a proper power deficit to the Mercedes PU all season, and while Ferrari's somehow still in the championship fight, that engine disadvantage keeps biting them when it matters most. Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc keep clocking the same thing, too, those Mercedes-powered cars just vanishing down the long straights like they've got rocket boosters attached.

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Here's the thing though, according to Charles, Ferrari's caught in what he calls a vicious circle. Mercedes designed their turbo to produce silly amounts of power, which means their drivers can deploy later out of corners because they've got so much grunt available. When you're deploying later, you're obviously cutting the straights later too. That puts them way ahead before turn one. So yeah, Leclerc's basically betting their ICE power is significantly stronger, and he doesn't sound like he's guessing.

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Ferrari did try to fight back by bringing an ADUO-boosted engine to Monza, showing they're not just sitting around accepting defeat. But Leclerc's comments suggest they need something more radical if they're going to match what Mercedes has built into their power unit. The challenge is that Ferrari's whole design philosophy is different, focused on eliminating turbo lag and nailing low-speed power and traction. That's brilliant for corners, rubbish for top speed.

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On a brighter note for the Monegasque, he's hopeful the boosted engine that got damaged in his massive Monza crash can be salvaged and used again. If it doesn't survive the checks though, he'll be looking at an engine penalty before the season's done to get those new parts back in the pool. Either way, Ferrari's got some serious thinking to do if they want to close that power gap before the final races.

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