F1 | Leclerc: “SF-24 easier to drive, but Red Bull is ahead”

It is a two-faced Leclerc who gave himself to the microphones at the end of his turn on the track on the second day of testing in Bahrain. The Cavallino driver ended the morning session in the lead, at least before it was interrupted due to a blown manhole cover two hours before the checkered flag.

Before the interruption, the Monegasque had undertaken several runs with the same programme, completing two fast laps punctuated by a passage through the pit lane. The Prancing Horse engineers repeated the same plan on four occasions to evaluate the car's reactions to the set-up changes. Only in the last part of the session had Leclerc started a long run on the C3, but was forced to interrupt it due to the damage and the interruption.

The SF-24 in fact suffered damage that required the replacement of the bottom, although the damage did not appear to be as extensive as one might have imagined, given that fortunately it did not touch the chassis. The mechanics directly replaced the floor by installing a spare one, while the damaged unit will return to Maranello for the necessary repairs.

“That's it, in the end it wasn't huge. There was a hole in the bottom, which we had to replace. But other than that, no, I didn't have any warnings. I saw something, but honestly it was so thin I thought it was something plastic. Sometimes we see some on the trail and pass over them without anything happening. But this time it was obviously made of metal and therefore damaged the car a little more,” Leclerc told F1TV.

To make up for lost time, the Monegasque was given the opportunity to return to the track again in the first hour of the afternoon session, which was lengthened to allow the teams to lap more consistently. The Monegasque took advantage of this to complete a long stint of eighteen laps with the C3 compound, the “intermediate” and more flexible one from the slick range brought by Pirelli for the tests.

Leclerc did not go into too much detail about the on-field values ​​of the SF-24 compared to its rivals, but underlined the improvements in terms of handling of the new Cavallino single-seater, defined as a step forward compared to the SF-23. Last season's car, in fact, had often proven unpredictable, making it even more difficult for the drivers to find the right confidence in the vehicle: the high sensitivity to the wind was also a concern, caused by the aerodynamic map of the car, which was completely magazine about this year's car, partly to solve this very problem.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Driveability was a theme on which Ferrari spent a lot of time in the development phase, listening to feedback from the drivers: already in the last championship the updates had gone in search of a more constant balance, but this year, according to Leclerc , a significant step forward has been made.

“In terms of handling, the car is much improved compared to last year. But last year, after the test, it was very, very difficult to push in one direction, because we didn't know what the machine was doing,” said the Monegasque, going back a year, when he struggled to understand the behavior of the SF-23 .

“We would come into the corner and we didn't know if we were going to have extreme oversteer or extreme understeer. This was a big deal. This year the car is not like that, and this is a better starting point,” Leclerc then added, underlining the improvements made over the winter which left him smiling.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

According to Leclerc, the fact that the car reacted as predicted by the simulator will help speed up development. “The car behaves like in the simulator, so it's a good sign. Then, in terms of competitiveness, it's too early to say. In itself, the fact that it behaves exactly like in the simulator is good news. It allows us to develop the car on the simulator in Maranello and this is positive.”

According to Leclerc, the improvements in terms of handling will help to take a step forward also in terms of tire management, because they will allow for a “cleaner” style, without having to make major compromises in order to extract the maximum potential: “I think that handling it will help on long runs. So I think, as far as tire degradation, for race laps in general, I think we should be in a better position.”

However, the Ferrarista also tried to calm easy enthusiasm, underlining how, from his point of view, Red Bull is still one step ahead, thus making it once again the great favorite to win the title: “However, my initial feeling is that Red Bull, unfortunately, is still far ahead. They set some really impressive lap times. But this is just my feeling, without looking at the data, because even in this case the data doesn't mean much for now.”