MELBOURNE -- Charles Leclerc said McLaren were so far ahead during the Australian Grand Prix his engineer never once told him their lap time.
Leclerc finished eighth at Albert Park, two places ahead of new teammate Lewis Hamilton. Many had hoped Ferrari could mount a close challenge to McLaren this season but the orange cars looked comfortably quicker in the more straightforward moments of the chaotic opening race.
Leclerc said McLaren's pace has been eye-opening.
"Yeah, they were incredibly quick today," Leclerc said. "To be completely honest, I know that they are incredibly quick because I've heard they are incredibly quick. But my engineer didn't even tell me once the lap times of the McLaren.
"I think they were too far ahead. So I don't exactly know whether it's a second or a second and a half or two. I hope not two. But I've heard some numbers that are quite impressive. So we'll have to... Now I'll go back and look into it and try to understand where we are losing the most compared to them."
Leclerc was left wondering what might have been in the race, as Ferrari failed to capitalise on a wild finish as the rain worsened in the final laps. Ferrari appeared to leave their drivers out on dry tyres too long in those conditions, and Leclerc spun at a crucial moment and lost a lot of time.
Leclerc felt he had an outside shot at a podium finish without those things. "It was definitely a missed opportunity, I mean, especially in those conditions when it's changing and that you don't have the pace, it's there that you've got to score the points and we didn't today.
"We were not fast enough at the beginning of the race when the race was kind of boring and then once it mattered to make the right choice, we didn't.
"But the first one to blame is my mistake out of Turn 11 because this I've lost four positions or five positions, I think. And from that mistake, then it puts us on the back foot. And if you look three or four positions in front, then we are third or fourth, which I think was what could be done. So, yeah, but it's the way it is."
Hamilton finished just in the points and said the race was a "big crash course" for him.
The second race of the season is scheduled for Sunday in China.