Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has completed his first meters in the Ferrari SF-24 and the Monegasque looks back on his first laps in the new Ferrari with a good feeling.
“I remember the first lap last year, or if it wasn't the first lap it was the first three or four laps, I wasn't really happy with the behavior of the car,” Leclerc reflects on his bad feeling in the car from last year. “The car was very, very difficult to drive. This year the car feels much better.”
“On the other hand, I want to be able to push that it doesn't affect the competitiveness of the car, because if other teams have made a bigger step forward in terms of faster lap times, then it may be that the car is easier to drive is just that he is not fast enough, that he is not fast enough on the track.”
“So in terms of competitiveness it is very difficult. In terms of the first feeling in the car, I already have a better feeling this year than last year.”
According to Leclerc, it will take a few races before Ferrari fully understands the car's characteristics, and in particular its strengths. Last year the Ferrari car performed very inconsistently, the performance depended very much on the circuit on which it was driven. That will have to be better this year, but Ferrari will also have to have completed several races in that area to know how the SF-24 performs.
“When I look back at last year, I think you always have to wait two or three races to know how strong your package is performing. You have different circuits, you can sometimes have a very strong package at one circuit and then you go to another circuit and you can have a lot more problems.”
“Last year we had a problem with the balance of the car. As I said, that mainly depended on the outside conditions, especially the sensitivity to the wind in particular, but also the temperature, the ambient temperature or the track temperature. This probably affected the race speed more than our qualifying speed.”
“In that area, as drivers we have to give important feedback because these things are much more difficult to define in terms of data.”