Leclerc: Imola Upgrades Crucial for Season's Outcome

Charles Leclerc highlights upcoming Imola upgrades as pivotal for Ferrari’s performance, focusing on addressing weaknesses in slow-speed corners to challenge Red Bull throughout the season.

Charles Leclerc emphasized that slow-speed corners are an area Ferrari needs to address with the upgrades they are about to introduce to their SF-24.

Ferrari’s decision to rethink their car concept for this season has paid off, as it has become Red Bull’s most consistent challenger.

However, Ferrari has struggled to warm up its tires for a quick lap at the start of this season, affecting starting positions but benefiting race pace, with tires easier to keep in the right window.

Leclerc believes that Ferrari might still be somewhat behind in the next round in Miami, with McLaren set to introduce new parts while Ferrari will have its major package in Imola.

“I think in Miami it will be in line with what we’ve seen so far. We will obviously work to try to understand what was happening with the hard tires in Shanghai. To try to solve this issue and, hopefully, not have it again during the season.”

“For Miami, I’m not too sure what will happen. It will depend on who brings improvements. We probably won’t, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer.”

“Then it will change the game for the rest of the season. The improvements will be extremely important to see how development will proceed thereafter. If they go in the right direction, then the trajectory is set. Otherwise, it will be head-scratching time. I hope not, we’ve done that too much in 2023.”

Ferrari accelerated the introduction of minor developments during the Suzuka and Shanghai rounds, and they seem to have worked well. This reassures Leclerc, but he noted that the engineers in Maranello are aware that a performance deficit in low-speed corners is a glaring weakness they need to address.

“We know our weaknesses. Low speeds, especially this weekend, but generally, it has not been our strong point since the start of the season.”

“So we need to work on that and a bit of everything else. Normally, when you make improvements, it’s just to gain a little everywhere. But for now, the focus is more on low speed.”