Leclerc sensed from the start of the season that the SF-23 would be less performant
In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Charles Leclerc, struggling and even sometimes rumored to be leaving, revealed that he felt from the first laps of the season that his car would not allow him to achieve the same performances as in 2022.
If he felt recent improvements and regained the pole position and then the podium at Spa-Francorchamps during the last F1 Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc had a mixed first half of the season.
« Something was completely wrong »
The Monegasque no longer seems to play in the same league as last season, where he finished second in the World Championship, leading his team to the runner-up spot in the constructors’ championship.
Today, the Scuderia Ferrari is in 4th place, neck and neck with Aston Martin for a spot on the podium, but already over 50 points behind Mercedes. However, coming off the best season of his career in 2022, the 25-year-old driver had already sensed at the start of the 2023 season in Bahrain that his car would not perform in the same way. “During the first test laps, I had a strange feeling. Something was definitely off with the car’s balance,” Leclerc recently admitted in an interview with the Corriere della Sera. “It was only later that I discovered that the performance was lacking.”
Ferrari, the pursuit of victory
Leclerc, after a DNF in the opening race in Sakhir, a 7th place in Djeddah and another retirement in Albert Park, had indeed described his start to the year as a disaster.
But he has somewhat turned things around, currently ahead of his teammate Sainz in points and tied with George Russell (99 points, 5th). The five-time Grand Prix winner, when asked about his podium finishes this season, stated that he is not satisfied with them: “I didn’t enjoy them, we shouldn’t settle for second or third place, Ferrari deserves to win.”
Also, if the rumors are true about the driver re-signing with Ferrari in recent days, nothing has been confirmed by the prancing horse team. Leclerc, in this interview conducted during the Belgian GP weekend, reaffirmed his love for Ferrari while rumors send him to Mercedes.
