(Motorsports news) His Maranello team, Ferrari has unlocked some crucial understandings of its car since the Dutch GP, and its form has recently been lifted by a new floor that came in Japan. It was able to get ahead of primary competitor Mercedes at Suzuka, as the two teams battle for second place in the championship.
Red Bull’s utter runaway speed in Japan, on the other hand, has left opponents in no question about the gap that still exists between them and F1’s benchmark outfit. When asked by Ferrari, if the current feeling was one of encouragement at its own car growth or depression at the gap to Red Bull still being so large, Leclerc was clear that the positives won for the time being.
“On one side you always need to look at yourself and I think, since the second part of the season, since Zandvoort, we’ve learned a lot,” he stated. “We’re content with that. Of course, we also understand that Red Bull is still far ahead.” McLaren has a peak as well, and when they do, they are tremendously strong, like they were in Suzuka.
“But, overall, I think we’re more pleased with what Ferrari has learned than disappointed with the distance to Red Bull. It’s because I think with what we learned, we can do a significant step in the future, which hopefully will help us to close the gap to Red Bull as soon as possible.” After weekends in Italy and Singapore, where teammate Carlos Sainz had edged him out, the Japanese GP represented an improvement in Leclerc’s own performance.
Charles Leclerc previously stated that the swing in form towards Sainz was down to the way the Ferrari needed to be set-up for understeer, which he dislikes. But, while he was back on top of Sainz in Japan, he does not believe it was a huge step toward him understanding what is wrong with the SF-23. “The car issues are still there,” he explained. “I believe we will need a completely new car to get rid of it, and that is our goal for next year.”
“But with this year’s Ferrari’s car, I’m working quite a bit on it because, at the moment, it’s not that it cannot be oversteery, we can set it up as any car on the oversteery side, but whenever it’s oversteery, it’s extremely inconsistent. “As a result, we have to drive it on the understeery side, which makes it tough for me to employ my driving style to extract lap time.
“I’ve tried to improve and understand how I can use my driving style in a different way.” It has worked a little better in Japan, but I doubt it will make a significant difference for the remainder of the year.”
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