Charles Leclerc produced an X-rated radio rant before slamming the new Formula 1 regulations for changing how drivers need to approach qualfying. Known widely as one of the quickest drivers on the grid in terms of one-lap pace in recent years, the Monegasque is struggling to get to grips with how the increased reliance on battery power has changed the game.

Leclerc qualified fourth for the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, but it could have been better were it not for a mistake at Spoon Curve on his final run in Q3. But the true source of his frustration as he made his way back to the Ferrari garage was the energy deployment he was getting from his engine.

He fumed over the radio: “Honestly, I cannot understand these rules in qualifying. It’s a f***ng joke. I go faster in corners, I go on the throttle earlier… then for f***’s sake I lose everything in the straight.” Speaking in the media pen afterwards, Leclerc offered a more detailed explanation of the situation he is struggling to get to grips with.

He said: “Coming [into] Q3 – at least myself and that’s how I’ve approached qualifying since forever – you go into that last lap and you try things that are a little bit above whatever you’ve tried before. And when you do that, the system needs to re-optimise everything while you are driving, basically. So, for some reason, whenever I get to Q3, I start losing time in the straights.

“I make time in corners [but] I lose time in straights and this is very frustrating because you never really put a lap together. You’re always compromising one thing for another. I think for everybody, going into Q3 is just not the nicest feeling, because we want to be at the limit of those cars and whenever you play with those limits, not only you pay the price of a small snap, but you also pay triple the price in the straight.

“This is very frustrating because qualifying is all about us trying to find the limit and to play with the limits, and at the moment whenever you play with the limit you get destroyed in the straights. So you’ve got to stay right underneath it, which is an art in itself, and all the good drivers need to make the difference anyway. But I think it’s less rewarding for the drivers that like to really push over it. Most of the time in Q3 that’s paid off, but not with these cars.”

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton qualified two places lower in sixth but said he was “feeling pretty decent” in the car. His concern is less about energy deployment than the emergence of McLaren as a threat this weekend, as Oscar Piastri out-qualified both Ferraris and Lando Norris also managed to split Leclerc and Hamilton despite suffering problems of his own.

Hamilton said: “Our race pace has been pretty decent, [but] it looks like McLaren have taken a step forward and they’ve got the Mercedes engine which is a long way ahead of ours. We’ve got a huge amount of work to do. To be eight-tenths off, or seven-tenths, whatever it is, even if you bring an upgrade of two, three or four tenths, you’re still a way off. So that gap is going to take a mighty push from everybody.”