Charles Leclerc says Scuderia Ferrari has been pushing like he’s “never seen before” to improve its car and was rewarded with second place in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Leclerc missed out on pole position by just 0.048s on Friday, but endured a tough Sprint after struggling in wet conditions at the Red Bull Ring. In the main race, however, Leclerc led a number of laps due to Ferrari’s strategy of stopping during an early Virtual Safety Car and he says the car is feeling much improved even if there is a long way to go to catch Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
“It feels good to be back on the podium, especially after what was a very difficult day yesterday,” Leclerc said. “I had a really good feeling in the car on Friday. I think with the new upgrades, the feeling is getting there, and we were really waiting for this race in order to confirm the good feelings that we had on Friday, and it worked out.
“No secrets, we need to still work extremely hard to catch Red Bull, (who) are still quite a lot faster come race day. But the feeling is better, and the team is pushing like I’ve never seen before in terms of bringing the upgrades much earlier than what was planned. This is great to see.”
Despite securing his best result of the season so far, Leclerc also believes his Ferrari wasn’t perfectly set-up for Sunday’s race and has more to come.
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“Overall, we had a more consistent car today, which was good to see,” he said. “I feel like maybe with these sprint weekends, it’s a bit more unpredictable, less preparation you have, and maybe I was a bit out of the window in terms of setup for this race. I had the rear stepping out a bit too much, and struggling with rear degradation. But on the second and last stint, it was a little bit better as I modified my driving. Maybe we left a bit more of performance there.”
While the Monegasque has fought hard with Verstappen in the past — including at the Red Bull Ring — Leclerc says he didn’t try too hard to keep him behind while leading as they approached the halfway point in the race, given the pace differential between the two cars.
“At that point I knew it was a matter of time. Max had much fresher tires. They are also quicker whenever we have the same tires, so it’s not like I tried to push like crazy. I knew it was crucial to lose as little time as possible in this battle, and this is why I haven’t been as aggressive as I’ve been in other times when we were fighting for real positions whereas this one was a bit difficult.
“If he wouldn’t have overtaken me into Turn 4, it was the lap after, and I would have lost more time for my race, so it wouldn’t have benefitted me in any way.”