Ferrari now understands better how to find performance – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari has worked out how to find performance from the current generation of cars and does not fear the approach Red Bull has taken in 2024.

The success of the RB19 has been followed by a radical evolution with Red Bull’s bodywork around the engine cover and sidepods towards the rear of the car, and the signs from testing were that the RB20 has at least maintained the team’s advantage. However, Leclerc says there are so many unseen areas of performance that he isn’t focusing too much on the visual changes at Red Bull, and that Ferrari’s own understanding has improved significantly in recent months.

“I think it’s very difficult to judge how much risk every team has taken,” Leclerc said. “Obviously, visually the Red Bull is looking very different this year compared to last year, I think you have to go really under cover to understand how much risk they’ve been taking.

“On our side I don’t think it’s a matter of how much risk you’re taking, just how much understanding you have on your own car, and on this we have done a huge step forward from Zandvoort last year. We have done quite big changes to the car in FP1, FP2, to try and understand a bit more about these new cars, and after this race we did quite a lot of steps forward in our understanding and different new parts we brought to the car.

“As soon as you understand, it’s easier to actually find the direction to push into to have the gains. Before that, maybe we didn’t have the understanding of exactly how to extract the performance out of these new philosophy of cars.”

Leclerc says it wasn’t fully clear where the Red Bull’s performance level currently sits during testing due to the type of running that took place.

“The thing is that Red Bull is one of the only teams that didn’t run a full simulation during the test, which is normally what helps us to understand where we are exactly, so it’s very difficult to know where they are,” he said. “We did one, so we know where we are, obviously. Some of the teams have done some race runs, so we have kind of an idea where they stand, but Red Bull is not the case, so for now it’s impossible to understand where we are.

“However, it’s a track where we’ve been strong in the past, and I hope that we can challenge for the win and of course if there’s an opportunity we will do absolutely everything to take it.”

Leclerc did not win a race last season but says being in the mix on a more regular basis would constitute a successful year in 2024 given the dominance Red Bull has enjoyed over the past 18 months.

“To be challenging for maybe more wins definitely would be a step forward and that would be a positive season. We need to continue the positive momentum from the second half of last year,” he said.

“The team and everyone in the paddock felt that we were in a positive spiral and were going towards better things and with a very clear vision of where we wanted to go and how to go there. This is exactly how we need to approach the season — significant steps forward every time we put something inside the car, which was the case in the second half of last year.”