F1 | Leclerc: “Sainz is more effective now, but I will improve quickly”

In this start of a world championship, one of the themes that has taken center stage is the performance of Charles Leclerc, a driver from whom something more is always expected given the talent he has shown over the seasons. However, in this start of 2024 not everything went as smoothly as ever, not so much in the race, where he generally always defended himself well in terms of pace, but in qualifying, that phase of the weekend which in the past has always been one of its strong points.

In fact, since the first rounds of the championship, the Monegasque has highlighted a certain difficulty in bringing the tires to the right temperature in the preparation lap, an aspect which then also has repercussions when he is looking for the best time. What is missing at this stage of the season almost seems like a sort of constancy and consistency in being able to extract the maximum in qualifying.

Looking back over the season, in Bahrain Leclerc had in fact the time for pole already in Q2, but was unable to repeat it in the last heat, being overtaken by Verstappen. In Saudi Arabia he achieved the best possible result, despite admitting a certain difficulty in feeling maximum grip with the new soft tyre, a theme which also recurred in Australia where, like his teammate, he made some mistakes which deprived him of the opportunity to fight for pole.

Only in Japan was something concretely missing from the point of view of pure performance, so much so that he was forced to use two sets of soft tires in Q1 and then lost the chance to make two attempts in the decisive heat for the starting grid. These difficulties on the flying lap also negatively influenced the race, not so much in terms of pace, but on a strategic level, because starting in traffic like in Melbourne and Suzuka forced him to follow different race tactics.

Speaking on the eve of the Chinese Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc believes that the difference in results compared to his teammate was simply due to better execution by Sainz on the race weekend.

When asked if the Spaniard had managed to adapt more quickly to Ferrari 2024, Leclerc explained that there is simply a small gap at the moment which has allowed Sainz to be more incisive in the overall context of the weekend: “I think let it be simple: Sainz is doing a better job. I think that in Bahrain it is difficult to make a comparison because I had some problems on my part but, apart from that, I think this was a very positive weekend”, explained Leclerc, who rightly pointed out that in Sakhir, it had not been for the brake problem, he would have been in contention for the podium.

Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“However, in the last two races, Carlos has been stronger. Now it's up to me to work, especially on the qualifying pace, which is usually a strong point for me. I struggled to put the lap together. There is a line very thin between getting the exit lap right or completely wrong and putting the tires in the right window,” added the Monegasque. In fact, with such a compact grid, being able to hit that very narrow window between the peak of grip and a good level of grip becomes increasingly fundamental.

“For the moment, I have struggled more than Carlos, who is riding at a very high level. I have worked a lot on this aspect. And usually when I work on certain aspects, I am quite confident that I will improve quite quickly. I am not worried, but obviously now I have to prove it on the track, starting with tomorrow's qualifying.”

Looking at the weekend and the needs of the Shanghai circuit, Leclerc expects the Cavallino team to be closer to Red Bull than at Suzuka, a very fast and technical track where it is important to have a reactive but also very stable base in the fast corners. In this case, the corners will be more wide-ranging, but the fact that there are fewer extremely fast sections adds an element of confidence from Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo credit: Mark Sutton

“On paper, I think it's a track where we could be a little bit stronger than Suzuka, but we'll approach it the same way; I still think Red Bull will have an advantage this weekend.”

“We'll just have to focus on ourselves, because it can be very easy to make mistakes, as we saw especially in Suzuka qualifying, I didn't do a good job on Saturday and then we don't go from fourth to fifth position, but from fourth to eighth “.

“I think we will be closer in the race. But let's see, it's been a long time since we last came here. I saw that the track was somehow painted, or that there was something strange, so even in this In this case we will have to see how our car behaves and what the main limits are in the race. But on paper I think we will be closer to Red Bull”, added the Monegasque, underlining how certain sections of the track have been colored with a light layer of paint. surface bitumen, but without completely reasphalting the roadway.