Why do Leclerc and Hamilton "very difficult" races for Ferrari at Silverstone and Spa?

After leaving Austria with more questions than answers, Ferrari heads into this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone facing what both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc believe could be one of the team's toughest weekends of the season.

Despite showing encouraging pace at several races in recent weeks, both drivers admitted that Ferrari's underlying weakness on the straights remains a significant concern.

With Silverstone featuring long full-throttle sections and unique demands on the hybrid power unit, neither Hamilton nor Leclerc is expecting an easy fight against Mercedes, Red Bull and the other front-runners.

Leclerc revealed that Ferrari has spent the days following the Austrian Grand Prix analysing why its pace dropped so dramatically on Sunday compared to qualifying.

"We saw a very clear trend. We were strong on Saturday but not on Sunday. I worked hard to understand what happened, and I think I've identified some elements," said the Monegasque.

According to Leclerc, there is no single explanation behind Ferrari's recent inconsistency. Following the Monaco Grand Prix, the team made several changes to the SF-26, while the update package introduced in Barcelona had initially delivered a much more positive feeling behind the wheel.

"In Barcelona, the feeling was much better and the pace was also strong. I don't consider that weekend a performance challenge, but my mistake in qualifying and the technical problem in the race led to a negative result."

Austria, however, exposed weaknesses that appeared almost exclusively during the race, prompting Ferrari to investigate the underlying causes.

While the team has reportedly identified the areas requiring improvement, Leclerc stopped short of revealing exactly what Ferrari intends to change.

"We will change some things, but it's also fair to say that the next two races will probably be very difficult for us," concluded the Monegasque.

His comments suggest Ferrari is already looking beyond Silverstone and next week's race, accepting that the characteristics of the upcoming circuits may not play to the strengths of its current package.

Lewis Hamilton painted an equally cautious picture when asked about Ferrari's prospects following his victory in Spain and the disappointing reality check that followed in Austria.

"Obviously we had some great performances before. The fact is, as you could see in the race, we lose quite a lot of time. I think it's like four tenths that we lose in a straight line. It's hard to recover that through corners."

Despite the obvious frustration, the seven-time World Champion remains convinced that Ferrari's chassis is fundamentally competitive.

"I think we've got a great car fundamentally, it's just we've just got to continue to work to maximise what we can and get the best results we can, score as many points as we can until we can close that deficit."

Hamilton believes Silverstone's layout could magnify Ferrari's biggest weakness even further. With almost 80 percent of the lap spent at full throttle, Silverstone places enormous demands on both engine performance and energy deployment.

Hamilton expects that to become one of Ferrari's biggest challenges this weekend: "It's not that I'm not confident. It's that the fact is we've got long straights."

The Briton explained that the nature of the circuit leaves very few opportunities to recharge the battery, meaning the hybrid system may not be able to deliver maximum electrical assistance for much of the lap.

"I think this is going to be the most unprecedented weekend in terms of the power deployment. All us drivers have been talking on the drivers' chat, just about how poor the power is going to be through this track."

"We run out of battery power. There's only a few corners to charge the engine, so the MGU-K will be switched off for a large portion of the lap and that's where we will struggle probably the most."

Hamilton even suggested Ferrari's performance deficit could become significantly larger than it was in Austria: "The deficit could be twice as big."