Charles Leclerc: Ferrari not as bad as the championship looks
Charles Leclerc insists Ferrari’s current championship po𝄹sition at the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season is not a genuine reflection of its true performanc🐈e.
Despite being billed as the pre-season favourites, Ferrari is currently 74 points adrift of Meꦫrcedes after f🎃ailing to win a race in the opening four rounds of the campaign, while its chief rival has recorded four straight one-two finishes.
But L🧜eclerc believ🍸es the championship table appears to exacerbate the situation Ferrari finds itself in, and he remains confident of a turnaround.
Charles Leclerc insists Ferrari’s current championship position at the sꦜtart of the 2019 Formula 1 season is not a genuine 🌞reflection of its true performance.
Despite being billed as the pre-season favourites, Fer💧rari is currently 74 points adrift of Mercedes after failing to win a race in the opening four rounds of the campaign, while its chi🌌ef rival has recorded four straight one-two finishes.
But Leclerc believes the championship table appears to exacerbate the situation Ferrari fin𓂃ds itself in, and he remains confident of a turnaround.
“I don’t think it is as bad as the♍ championship lo🦹oks,” Leclerc said.
“We have had opportunities, once I did a mistake, on the other on꧂e we had an issue that cost us a better result.
“I think overall the performance is there, we just nꦍeed to try and put everything together, in most of the occasions to be using our full potential. I don’t think there has been a drop in performance from Ba🌳rcelona until now.
“I think the only weakness at the moment is we need to try and understand the car a bit more and in which optimal conditions itౠ works and try and put it there as much as we can.”
Leclerc refuted suggestions Ferrari was clearly ahe🌠ad of Mercedes after testing and hopes the introduction of the Scuderia’s 🧸first engine upgrade of the year can help improve its fortunes as it returns to the circuit it looked so strong at in pre-season.
“I think Mercedes ꧃were not that far [behind] even in testing in Barcelona,” he explained. “The last🅷 day [was] the only day where they actually pushed a little bit and in the last laps they did a very similar lap time to ours.
“So I don’t think they were ever very far away, and we don’t even know how much they pushed in the last day of testing. It’s not right to say that we✱ were a lot for ahead after testing.
“Hopefully the🦹 improvements we’ve brought here put us a step forward and then we’ll see for the rest of the season. Normally Barcelona is quite representative track for the performance of the car so hopefully we’re strong h𝄹ere.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Leﷺwis tel🐲ls the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
