Charles Leclerc has played any chance of a Ferrari revival in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Leclerc, who led the 2022 Spanish GP comfortably before a turbo failure, had a mixed home weekend, qualifying third but receiving a three-place grid penalty after inadvertently blocking Lando Norris, consigning him to sixth on race day.
“Well, we are not expecting any big miracles, to be honest,” said Leclerc to the media. “From now on, we want to try and bring some smaller upgrades every race.
“This one should go in the right direction, but I don’t think it will be a massive change. We currently have an extremely peaky car that is okay in qualifying on one lap pace.
“As soon as we go out of those conditions, we lose so much downforce. We have been working a lot on this car. [We will] not gain much performance, but at least [we’ll] be more consistent.”
Confidence growing in honest Vasseur’s leadership
Although Ferrari’s on-track performance leaves many puzzled, Frederic Vasseur’s honest leadership has been seen as a breath of fresh air as he looks at returning the prancing horse to the top of F1.
Vasseur and Leclerc have previously worked together in Formula 2 and Alfa Romeo, building a good rapport.
“I think it was a very smooth introduction,” said Leclerc. “He gets the team and doesn’t want to make huge changes. That’s not what we need. It’s slight changes that go in the right direction.
“He’s been very clear that he wants to strengthen the team with new people, which is always important as it gives a different point of view of people that are coming from other teams.
“With me, we’ve always had an amazing relationship. We’ve been working together in the junior categories. So he knows me very well. He’s also very honest with me, which is something that I really like.”
