The second podium of the season for Charles Leclerc arrived in Austria, a result that was missing from the good weekend held in Azerbaijan in May after the long break. In recent rounds, Ferrari debuted two important packages of technical innovations: the first in Spain, where the revised bellies were introduced, while in Austria a new underbody and a front wing redesigned in many of its elements arrived.
Although in Barcelona there were no great steps forward in terms of results, from Canada onwards, albeit on circuits more suited to the characteristics of the car, the SF-23 has always performed well, showing signs that the drivers have defined as a step in the right direction.
The main aspect is certainly that of the feeling behind the wheel. Both Leclerc and Sainz explained that they had found better driving sensations with the new updates and this gave confidence, especially considering how unpredictable the car was in the first races of the season. Clearly it is too early to say that all that glitters is gold, because the Silverstone appointment will be a sort of testing ground for the Maranello car.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Alessio Morgese
The numerous fast stretches, as well as particularly intense gusts of wind, could reveal the car’s main weaknesses, as underlined by the Monegasque driver himself. “I think that from Barcelona the feeling is going in the right direction. The feeling was good in Austria and the pace was better than what we had in the first part of the season, I think it shows that some steps forward have been made”.
“However, we shouldn’t get too excited. Red Bull is still a long way ahead, and I think this track will show our weaknesses, so we can struggle more than in Austria. But it’s clear that the feeling and pace has improved.” Words that reflect a certain caution, such as those spoken by the teammate.
Among the novelties of the weekend there are also the new tyres, made with a more solid construction to respond to the high loads recorded in this first part of the season, higher than the simulations that had been supplied by the teams to Pirelli. The Italian manufacturer has assured that nothing will change in terms of behaviour, but Leclerc wants to wait for the first free practice to give a definitive judgement: “I don’t know. I think it will be very important to understand this during free practice, to understand what the difference will be with the standard tires in terms of degradation, to modify the car to adapt it to this new construction. We’ll see at that point, but for now I can’t say if it will help or not.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
In the last three rounds, the Monegasque has shown some suffering both with low temperatures and in mixed conditions between dry and wet. Already during the weekend in Austria, the Ferrarista had hinted that these difficulties could be linked more to a driving style problem than to an intrinsic aspect of the SF-23. Leclerc is confident of the work being done behind the scenes, which should help him should these conditions arise again in the near future.
“I’m confident in the sense that whenever I’ve worked on something throughout my career, I’ve always managed to take a step forward and quite quickly too. At the moment this is an issue, what can I do as a driver to get the tires in the right window in these conditions and that probably matters more than anything else. There has been a lot of behind the scenes work on this speech, I am confident that we have made some progress”
Looking to the future, for now Red Bull hasn’t brought large packages of updates, limiting itself to small innovations. The idea was to take advantage of the large advantage at the start of the championship to carry on with work in the second half of the season, also with a view to 2024. Both Leclerc and Hamilton explained that they are not particularly worried by this scenario, given that the Attention is directed more towards one’s own cars: currently the objective is to cure the weak points of the respective single-seaters, because this done during this world championship will also be useful in the development of next year’s car.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, battles with Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“I’m not particularly worried, it’s part of the game. When you’re ahead over the course of a season, obviously the risk to the others is that the team ahead can use that advantage to develop next year’s car. We are still focused on developing this season’s car, because we have very clear weaknesses and we know we have to fix them. When we have solved them, next year’s car will certainly be better,” said the Ferrarista.
“What gives me confidence right now is that we have a very clear plan on what are the areas we want to improve on, where we have already improved in the last three races. There are a lot of new things coming in the next races, not only to stay ahead of Mercedes and Aston, but also to battle with the Red Bulls as fast as possible. We are on the right direction.”
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