F1 China, Leclerc confident: “Ferrari stronger than Suzuka”

by VALERIO BARRETTA

Leclerc towards Shanghai

After the Suzuka Grand Prix there was a lot of discussion about Ferrari. Observers were divided between those who appreciated the gap halved from Red Bull in the space of six months and those who noted how the Ferrari cannot celebrate a third and fourth place as a victory.

In Shanghai, unlike Suzuka, there will be no recent benchmarks (there hasn't been any racing in China since 2019) but it is possible that the Red is closer to the RB20. Charles Leclerc is convinced of this, who in the press conference to present the Grand Prix expressed cautious optimism, especially for Sunday.

Leclerc's words

“I think the confidence level has been quite stable since the start of the season. On paper, I think it's a track where we could be a little stronger than Suzuka. I think this year we are quite strong, but I still believe that Red Bull will have the upper hand this weekend; we will have to focus on ourselves, because it doesn't take much and we go from fourth to eighth position on the grid, I experienced it myself two weeks ago. It will therefore be very important, especially in a Sprint weekend, in which we have two qualifying sessions, to extract the maximum from the car in both qualifying sessions and then in the race.“.

“I think we will be closer to Red Bull in the race than in Suzuka, but let's see. I've only raced here twice, but it's always been a very interesting track. It is a very nice track, where many different lines are possible, especially in turns 1, 2 and 3. Having only FP1 before qualifying, we will have to find the best set-up as quickly as possible. But even then this is an exciting challenge, and adapting quickly will be very important“.