Ferrari struggles with balance ahead of Melbourne, but Leclerc remains optimistic about refining the SF-25 and closing the performance gap.
Charles Leclerc admitted that Ferrari has work to do after the team encountered balance issues with its SF-25 during pre-season Formula 1 testing. The team must adapt to some changes made over the winter, including a suspension update.
“We are seeing the numbers we expected, even though we struggled a bit more with balance on Thursday afternoon and Friday, so there is still some work to do,” Leclerc said. “The weather has probably played a significant role over these days, not only in terms of pure temperatures but also the wind.”
“I’m holding off on predictions for now. At the moment, we are working hard to try to improve the balance, as we struggled a bit over the first two days. We’ll see in Melbourne. But let’s say that over the last two days, we had a bit more difficulty with balance, so that’s what we are focusing on.”
Understanding the car will be key to improving its performance: “The feeling is that we still have work to do on the car’s balance before we get it exactly right.”
“We are not yet in the right window, which is normal because, in testing, you try different things, and you need to make fairly big changes to explore all possible setup directions and ensure you’re making the right choice before the first race.”
“That’s what testing is for. That’s what we’ve done. On Thursday, we were a bit extreme in one direction, and on Friday, we tried different things. Overall, it’s about trying and testing every possible direction to make sure we are confident in our choice after this test.”
McLaren F1 appeared to be performing better than Ferrari, but Leclerc isn’t focusing on that: “During testing, you concentrate a lot on yourself, but you also look at what others are doing. Even though you don’t know exactly how they are running, there are still a lot of unknowns, so you have to take lap times with caution.”
“However, it was very important for us to understand what we were missing compared to them and in relation to my own feeling. There is still a lot of work to do to be ready for Melbourne, and that is what we are focusing on.”
“McLaren looks strong, but it is too early to say. We need to focus on ourselves and not get carried away by first impressions because we don’t know anything yet. There are still a lot of question marks. But we have learned a lot from these first tests, and that will certainly help us find the right window.”
Leclerc is pleased to have Lewis Hamilton as a reference to work on this: “It was very important for us to understand what we are missing, and as I have said several times, there is still a lot of work to do to be ready for Melbourne—that is what we are trying to figure out with Lewis.”
“The fact that one of us drives in the morning and the other in the afternoon means that one is working while the other is not, so there isn’t much time to talk. But whenever we have a few minutes free, we always discuss the car, the sensations, our expectations, and what we haven’t yet managed to achieve as we would like, trying to compare our notes.”
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Ferrari’s Tough Road to Melbourne – Can Leclerc Deliver? Ferrari’s Tough Road to Melbourne – Can Leclerc Deliver? Ferrari’s Tough Road to Melbourne – Can Leclerc Deliver?
