by VALERIO BARRETTA
Leclerc towards Zandvoort
After the victory in Monte Carlo, the Ferrari he took the wrong direction in terms of development and set-up, which he was only able to fix in the last few races before the break. Charles Leclerc he returned to the podium only at Spa-Francorchamps (thanks to the disqualification of George Russell) and he is the first to know that his SF-24 will hardly be able to give him anything better for the Dutch Grand Prix and that substantial improvements can only come with the new package of updates.
Leclerc’s words
In response to a specific question from our correspondent Carlo Platella, Leclerc replied: “Things are changing very quickly, and it’s quite strange because in Formula 1 once there’s a gap it usually takes a long time for a team to come back, whereas this year McLaren has made big steps forward and very quickly, I was surprised. Mercedes has also made steps forward in the last few races. Unfortunately for us we are one of the teams that have struggled the most recently, but we are working on it. I am fully confident in the work we are doing and the updates we will bring.. I can’t say when we’ll have them, but the improvements we’ll make will take us a step forward.“.
In short, in view of the Dutch GP, Leclerc does not expect great steps forward. The Monegasque is substantially in agreement with the defensive strategy of team principal Frederic Vasseur: “I don’t expect this race to bring us back to the level of form we saw before Monaco, at that point we had the pace to do a certain type of thing. Not anymore. After Monaco we had five or six races where we did extreme things with the set-up, which were not optimal to optimise our race weekends. However, in the last two races before the break we maximised the points we could take with our car. There is no particular problem with the car, we just lack overall performance, we are not quick enough. Until we get the rhythm, the aim will be to maximise points and lose as few as possible to our rivals.. Then, when we get our updates, hopefully they’ll be enough to get us back in the fight.“.
An important aspect of the weekend could be the wind, an aspect that had put the Rossa in difficulty in 2023. The forecast calls for very strong gusts for tomorrow: “I don’t think there are any cars designed for the wind forecast for Friday. I think it can reach 80 kilometers per hour and I’m not sure there will be many cars on the track in case that is the case. However, I think that for Saturday and Sunday the wind will calm down, but it will remain extremely strong. We have certainly made some progress on this characteristic which was a weak point last year. However, we will see how much. I think we have already seen the result of the first part of the season: in those wind conditions it is a much more consistent and predictable car, it was a big step forward“.
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