Charles Leclerc wants to re-sign with Ferrari

Leclerc said that his “first dream” is to become world champion with the Prancing Horse.

Formula 1 driver [autotag]Charles Leclerc[/autotag] is up for contract re-negotiation with Scuderia Ferrari next year, but he isn’t looking to move teams anytime soon.

There have been plenty of rumors over the last few years about Leclerc’s F1 future after some highly-publicized strategy errors and mishaps from his current team, but he told Autosport that, while it’s normal to think about other options in a negotiation, he would prefer it if he stayed with his current team for the foreseeable future.

Here is what he said about his current contract situation:

“Of course, I think every driver has considered their different options, once they get the [possibility]. But I have a huge love of Ferrari. And my first target and my first dream is to become a world champion with Ferrari, more than anything else. So, if there’s a slight opportunity for it to happen, I will have no doubt about pushing to stay here at least.”

Leclerc finished second in the F1 World Driver’s Championship in 2022, scoring 308 points. He’s proven that he’s a capable driver, having netted five wins in his career with Ferrari, but it will ultimately depend on both him and Ferrari to come to an agreement before his contract runs out.

Formula 1 is set to change both its engine and chassis regulations in 2026, so that will be something for Leclerc to keep in mind as he negotiates a new contract.

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Good and bad news for Leclerc and Ferrari at Spa

Charles Leclerc says there are both positive and negative aspects to his third-place result at the Belgian Grand Prix, having finished over half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen. Championship leader Verstappen had been quickest in …

Charles Leclerc says there are both positive and negative aspects to his third-place result at the Belgian Grand Prix, having finished over half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen.

Championship leader Verstappen had been quickest in qualifying but a grid penalty for a gearbox change saw him start sixth, with Leclerc on pole. Although Sergio Perez took the lead on the opening lap, Leclerc looked comfortable as he held onto third once Verstappen also came through, praising Ferrari’s execution but admitting the gap to Red Bull remains daunting.

“This was the best we could achieve today, no doubt,” Leclerc said. “So yeah, you always hope to try to win the race, but on the other hand, realistically, we knew that both of the Red Bulls would be much quicker. But our target was to maximize the points with the package we had and honestly, I don’t think we could have done anything better today.

“We’ve had quite a positive weekend on our side in terms of pace. Of course, the race went well on my side, but a shame for Carlos (who retired following his opening-lap collision with Oscar Piastri), as I think we had good pace. So that is good. When you look at the Red Bull, we still have a lot of work to do, especially in terms of race pace, because degradation and everything they are quite far ahead still.”

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One area that often comes under scrutiny at Ferrari is strategy but Leclerc says the way the team managed the threat from Lewis Hamilton throughout the race was faultless.

“Basically, we had to react to what Lewis was doing behind, which then the Red Bull had to react to us a lap later. That’s why we were all on the same strategy, because everybody was reacting to somebody else’s strategy. Our strategy was based on Lewis and trying to keep him behind during the whole race. He had a good pace but I felt we had him under control.”

As the final stint was unfolding, Leclerc was within four seconds of Perez in the fight for second but says “a bit too much” fuel saving prevented him from mounting a challenge.

“When Checo started to push again for a few laps at the end, I could not match that, so I think they also had a bit of margin. But at one point I was seeing that I was doing the same lap times as Checo, I didn’t know how much he was saving but I knew how much I was saving, so I thought, ‘OK, maybe we can get second place’ — but then very quickly I understood that he was just saving.”

Don’t complain if F1 doesn’t run in Spa rain – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says nobody should complain if Formula 1 puts safety first and does not run at times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend due to the weather. Persistent rain throughout Thursday is a precursor to further threats on both Friday and …

Charles Leclerc says nobody should complain if Formula 1 puts safety first and does not run at times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend due to the weather.

Persistent rain throughout Thursday is a precursor to further threats on both Friday and Saturday, with three competitive sessions set to take place as part of the sprint weekend. Two years on from the called-off event at Spa-Francorchamps where just two laps behind the safety car were completed, Leclerc says the safety concerns with the venue should make drivers and fans understanding if tough decisions need to be made again.

“I think there are some changes that could make a difference,” Leclerc said. “First of all, the walls on the straight after Eau Rouge, we should have a bit more space on the left and right. If you lose control of the car, the way it is done at the moment you are bouncing on the walls and you have a very high chance of finding yourself in the way. I think this is probably a change we should consider in the future.

“Then to change the layout of Eau Rouge, for example, we find ourselves (at other times) in the season in those particular conditions — being fast in a straight — we have that everywhere and that is going to be difficult to do anything else other than that. You can always change the layout, but I don’t think it is fair to say this is what should be done.

“Then the two biggest problems after that is visibility. Visibility is really difficult to put into words … apart from saying we are seeing nothing – we are not exaggerating when we say we don’t see anything, we really don’t see anything when it’s raining.

“This is a really big problem for Formula 1, for motorsport in general. Any single-seaters, we have quite a bit of downforce and there is quite a lot of spray and then this causes quite a lot of incidents because we cannot react to what is in front. Easy to say that, much more difficult to find a solution, but I know that the FIA is on it and trying to do the best on that.

“Then the last thing is, when is it safe to start a race? This is another topic for the FIA to look closely, especially on a weekend like this where it seems we will have quite a lot of rain throughout, to not feel the pressure of starting a race just because we didn’t have any running.

“We could be in that situation this weekend. It’s obvious to say, but safety should come first and this needs to be the priority. People, and first of all us drivers, shouldn’t complain if we don’t have any laps because it is not safe to do so, with everything that has happened.”

The bad weather on his arrival at Spa had Leclerc wondering whether it would be possible to run the full Belgian GP weekend as scheduled. Michael Potts/Motorsport Images

Leclerc’s comments were backed up by his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who believes there’s a limit to what conditions the drivers should be asked to race in.

“If I can see in the car, then of course I will recommend to the race director and make sure we try and run,” Sainz said. “But at the same time, if you cannot see, it’s leaving everything down to luck and fate. I think we’ve learned our lessons recently and I think we need to not fall too much into the pressure of having to run just because we need to put on a show and because it’s the right thing for the sport, if the conditions are not safe enough.”

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However, Sainz says he doesn’t feel Spa itself is unsafe as a venue, with only the weather creating scenarios that need addressing, following the death of Dilano van T’Hoff in a Formula Regional race at Spa earlier this month.

“I will go out there, whatever the conditions are,” said Sainz. “But obviously as drivers we always need to give guidance to the FIA if we can actually see in case of an accident or anything in front of us, how many meters ahead we can see. All 20 drivers, we are asked for our opinion and I will give my opinion at the time.

“My number one priority will always be safety, but also as soon as everything is ready, I will be the first one screaming to run at this beautiful track. Because I love driving it in the dry, but I also love driving it in the wet. I actually think it’s more fun to drive in the wet than in the dry, especially those corners.

“I might differ a bit here. I don’t think the track lacks any safety attributes. I think the changes they’ve done over the years have made the truck a lot safer. I think it’s unfortunate what happened with Anthoine (Hubert, who was fatally injured in a crash during a Formula 2 race in 2019), but it’s more due to the conditions.

“What happened last time, a month ago here… that could happen in any category, in any racetrack in the world, when there’s no visibility and a car spins in the middle of a straight — we all cannot see (anything). It’s down to luck. This is why before green-flagging a session, before green-flagging a restart of the race where the cars are so closely bunched up, you need to be really sure that it’s not down to luck whether we’re going to see an accident or not.”

Leclerc wants McLaren-like improvement from Ferrari

Charles Leclerc says the past three races have shown Ferrari is on the back foot and needs to find performance like McLaren has, after a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix. Lando Norris picked up his second consecutive top-two finish in Budapest as …

Charles Leclerc says the past three races have shown Ferrari is on the back foot and needs to find performance like McLaren has, after a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris picked up his second consecutive top-two finish in Budapest as McLaren’s upgrades delivered more impressive performance on a very different type of track to Silverstone. After struggling in Great Britain, Ferrari was again off the pace in Hungary as Leclerc was classified seventh due to a time penalty – ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in eighth – and he says it reinforces the view that the team has slipped back in the pecking order.

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“The pit stop was quite slow, we had a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. so again, that is difficult,” Leclerc said. “Honestly, it’s frustrating overall because I felt that, the pace we had, even as a driver when you are feeling like you are doing a good job with the car you have, nobody really notices it. When you are doing a bad job, everybody notices it.

“It’s difficult but in the end, it’s part of the game and it’s just up to us now to do a step forward as McLaren did. Now we are on the back foot, it’s been confirmed through the last three weekends. There is a lot of work to do.”

Part of the issue for Ferrari is how the car feels to the drivers, with Leclerc insisting he was actually under the impression it was handling well for the majority of Sunday’s race.

“I feel like the result is much worse than what it felt like. The first stint felt pretty good, then with the slow stop it really put us on the back foot behind Lance (Stroll). I had to push a lot, then we were with Carlos and we lost a bit of time there. Then in the third stint, I pushed again and there again, the car felt quite OK. I feel like the result looks a lot worse than what it actually is. But it’s clear that compared to Lando especially, we are still behind.”

There was a positive aspect that Leclerc took away from the Hungaroring, though, as he noted an improvement in terms of tire degradation compared to earlier races in the season.

“Considering how much we were pushing, I don’t think it was that bad. But I don’t want to comment too much on that because to be honest, in the car you’ve only got your own picture,” he said. “I could see with Lewis (Hamilton) in front in the first stint, I felt like we were doing a really good job on tire management.

“The third stint with Oscar (Piastri), I felt like I was doing a really good stint with tire management. But I don’t know what the other three guys at the front were doing.”

Leclerc leads Norris and Gasly in second Hungarian GP practice

Charles Leclerc topped a shaken-up dry second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly. Ferrari driver Leclerc used a new set of soft tires to set a best time of 1m17.686s to pip McLaren’s Norris by just …

Charles Leclerc topped a shaken-up dry second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly.

Ferrari driver Leclerc used a new set of soft tires to set a best time of 1m17.686s to pip McLaren’s Norris by just 0.015s, with Gasly’s Alpine a further 0.217s adrift.

The final hour of Friday practice featured a diverse array of running plans that made comparisons between drivers difficult to make.

Title leader Max Verstappen ended the session 11th and 0.593s off the pace, having focused on conducting long runs on a single set of soft tires rather than the customary demonstration of one-lap pace.

Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell similarly had their focus elsewhere on their way to 16th and 20th respectively. Neither driver used a set of softs, choosing instead to focus on long stints on medium rubber.

It lent the session a somewhat subdued vibe, particularly given FP1 had been washed out by a sudden heavy downpour, which would ordinarily prompt a flurry of on-track activity in the follow-up hour.

Several drivers also completed an unusually small number of laps, including session leader Leclerc, who logged just 20 times with a longest stint spanning nine laps.

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The reason for the unusual session was the sport’s experimental tire rules in force this weekend, which have seen each car have its allocation of rubber cut from 13 to 11 sets for the round, including a halving of soft tires from eight to four.

Teams interpreted the best way to maximize their tire allocations differently, which led to final classification sheet likely to bear limited resemblance to the true performance order.

Yuki Tsunoda rocketed to fourth for AlphaTauri at a quarter-second off the pace, beating Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.

Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin ahead of Zhou Guanyu in the second Alfa and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari, the Spaniard almost half a second slower than leader Leclerc.

Verstappen was only 0.04s quicker than Lance Stroll, with Alex Albon fractionally behind.

Daniel Ricciardo ended his first dry session 14th. He was 0.699s off the pace and 0.451s behind AlphaTauri teammate Tsunoda.

Kevin Magnussen was 15th ahead of Hamilton and Williams rookie Logan Sargeant.

Sergio Perez’s difficult day continued following his FP1 crash. While the Mexican kept his car out of the barrier in the second session, an enormous lock-up on his sole qualifying simulation lap at Turn 11 badly flat-spotted his soft tires, forcing him back to his garage.

Perez didn’t have enough softs to bolt on a fresh set on account of the tire rules, leaving him to switch to his medium-tire long-run simulations for the rest of the hour without setting a representative single-lap time.

Oscar Piastri was 19th after spending much of the time in the McLaren garage for repairs to his damaged floor. The car had appeared to be bottoming out on the tarmac significantly early in the session.

Russell propped up the table in 20th for Mercedes.

Silverstone shows Ferrari still needs to make big steps – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness in the British Grand Prix shows that it still needs to make big steps forward with its 2023 car. Ferrari brought an upgrade in recent races that led to a much-improved showing in race pace in …

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness in the British Grand Prix shows that it still needs to make big steps forward with its 2023 car.

Ferrari brought an upgrade in recent races that led to a much-improved showing in race pace in both Canada and Austria, re-igniting its chances of finishing second in the constructors’ championship. However, at Silverstone Leclerc ended up ninth and Carlos Sainz 10th after pitting early and losing out under the safety car, something Leclerc says is more damaging to the end result due to the overall lack of performance.

“Honestly, not having the pace puts us in a situation where it’s very tricky to manage whatever situation there is,” Leclerc said. “So then it looks like bad luck. The timing of the safety car was definitely not the best for us, and was beneficial for many other drivers. At the end, it’s life. We just didn’t have pace. It’s not like we degraded the tires more than others. It’s just that Mercedes and McLaren were stronger than us.

“I managed to keep George (Russell) behind for the first part of the race. Then I think we pitted for George not to pit and undercut us, but that was too early. And then we had the safety car, once I started pushing on the hard, and then we got overcut by most of the people.

“There’s still a long way to go. At the moment, we seem still very sensitive to the change of conditions. When I say change of conditions, I mean mostly the wind. When we have a change of wind, our car becomes extremely difficult, and on that, we have made steps forward, but there are still quite big steps to do.”

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Leclerc says the difference between Ferrari’s single-lap pace and race performance also remains a problem that needs solving, after seeing McLaren make big strides in recent weekends.

“This is very difficult to understand. But we knew that this track was going to be one of our worst tracks, just because of the high-speed corners. This is one of the weaknesses of the car. It was kind of a positive surprise to be so close (in qualifying) — not timing-wise, because I didn’t do a great lap in Q3, but we were very close to Red Bull on the timed lap.

“But then in the race, we have been struggling a lot, and mostly in high-speed corners. We know why we are struggling. We are pushing a lot on the development, especially for these high-speed corners, and hopefully it will be better at the next race (in Hungary) — the track characteristics should suit our car a little bit better.

“(McLaren) were already surprising last week in Austria. This weekend, they did an even bigger step forward, and they did a great job. We knew also they are strong in high-speed corners — we could see that in Austria. We’re expecting them to be strong here, but probably not as strong as what we’ve seen. Great job by them, and now we need to push to try and catch them, at least in high-speed corners.

“It was a surprise. It’s very difficult to expect this year’s race results, because it’s so inconsistent between teams. (McLaren) were very strong this weekend.”

Leclerc leads Albon in rain-disrupted final British GP practice

Charles Leclerc beat Alex Albon to the top spot in the third practice session at the British Grand Prix, shortly before rain doused the track and curtailed the pursuit of competitive times. FP3 started dry, but rain had been sprinkling Silverstone …

Charles Leclerc beat Alex Albon to the top spot in the third practice session at the British Grand Prix, shortly before rain doused the track and curtailed the pursuit of competitive times.

FP3 started dry, but rain had been sprinkling Silverstone for much of the day, and teams estimated they had a roughly 25-minute window before the weather closed in on the circuit once more. Most drivers therefore got their soft-tire run done early to ensure they got their eye in ahead of qualifying later today in the event of a dry session.

Leclerc, who missed all FP2 with an electronics problem that required his mechanics to break the overnight curfew to undertake repairs, was out of pit lane early and rocketed straight to the top of the time sheet with a 1m27.419s, the fastest lap of the weekend so far.

The Monegasque was unsurprisingly also the most prolific lap-getter of the session, accumulating 24 tours of the track to make up for lost time on Saturday. The only blemish on his record was taking slightly too much curb on his final lap and pirouetting in the wet weather, luckily harmlessly.

He was kept company at the top of the order by Albon, who completed a sweep of practice sessions embedded inside the top three in his ordinarily lowly Williams car. He was just 0.173s slower that Leclerc.

Fernando Alonso completed the top three for Aston Martin 0.365s off the pace.

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Red Bull Racing teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez never troubled the top of the order, with neither sampling the soft rubber before the arrival of the rain, leaving them eighth and 14th respectively.

Their absence opened the door to Pierre Gasly to take fourth for Alpine ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in fifth.

Carlos Sainz was half a second adrift of his session-leading teammate but had his quickest lap partially obstructed by Alonso as the Aston driver started his own flyer.

Logan Sargeant was seventh in the second Williams car but had his session marred by a problem in the cockpit which the American said left his arms exposed to painful hot air, forcing him to pit for repairs.

Verstappen was eighth ahead of George Russell and AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries.

Lando Norris was 12th but will be investigated after the session for stopping at the end of the pit lane at the beginning of the session with a device lodged in his exhaust. A team member ran to meet the stopped car to extract the piece of equipment and appeared to leave the pit lane boundary, which the stewards noted for inquiry almost immediately.

Lance Stroll was 13th ahead of Perez, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon, Oscar Piastri, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg.

Zhou Guanyu set only two untimed laps for the session due to a problem with his Alfa Romeo’s MGU-H problem not charging the battery, leaving him on the back foot for qualifying.

Ferrari ‘pushing like I’ve never seen before’ with upgrades – Leclerc

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 …

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.”

Leclerc gets sprint grid penalty for impeding Piastri

Charles Leclerc has been given a three-place grid penalty for the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix after impeding Oscar Piastri in the sprint shootout. The Ferrari driver was on the apex at Turn 9 as Piastri approached on a flying lap, with the …

Charles Leclerc has been given a three-place grid penalty for the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix after impeding Oscar Piastri in the sprint shootout.

The Ferrari driver was on the apex at Turn 9 as Piastri approached on a flying lap, with the McLaren driver having to slow to avoid contact and being eliminated in Q1 of the Saturday morning qualifying session for the sprint. Although a substantial proportion of the blame was attributed to Ferrari for a lack of communication with Leclerc, a grid penalty was handed out that applies only to sprint events.

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“The driver of Car 81 stated that as he approached Turn 9 he saw that Car 16 was traveling slowly and had to brake, reducing his speed by approximately 45 km/h over the previous push lap,” the stewards’ decision read. “This was verified by the stewards referencing the telemetry of Car 81. It was confirmed Car 81 lost approximately 0.5 of a second in that mini- sector (5.3s v 4.8s).

“The driver of Car 16 stated that the last call he had from his team was when he was approaching Turn 4 (‘Piastri six seconds’) and that he saw Car 81 in his mirrors as he was in Turn 8 and Car 81 was in Turn 7.

“The Team Representative of Car 16 stated that the team ‘could have done better’ in communicating the rapid approach of Car 81 and its driver stated that, ‘If I had been warned I could have done something earlier.’

“Accordingly we determine that although this was not entirely the fault of the driver, and that the team’s lack of communication was the major contributing factor, a grid position penalty must be imposed as Car 81 was ‘unnecessarily impeded,’ because there is no doubt that the situation could have been avoided.”

Leclerc is demoted from sixth on the sprint grid to ninth place, promoting Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon. In the unlikely event that Leclerc doesn’t take part in the sprint, the penalty will only carry over to the next sprint event and not Sunday’s grand prix itself.

Ferrari drivers pleased to be closer than expected to Red Bull

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz admit they are closer to Max Verstappen than they expected after qualifying in the top three for the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen secured his fourth pole position in a row at the Red Bull Ring but after setting …

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz admit they are closer to Max Verstappen than they expected after qualifying in the top three for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen secured his fourth pole position in a row at the Red Bull Ring but after setting down an impressive benchmark with a 1m04.391s on his final run, he saw Leclerc fall just 0.048s short a few moments later. Although the Monegasque has been on pole position in Azerbaijan earlier this year, he says he hadn’t felt a repeat battle was on the cards prior to Friday’s running.

“I managed to put everything that I wanted in the last lap of Q3,” Leclerc said. “Very close to Max — not enough today but overall I don’t think we expected to be so close to the Red Bull. So it’s a good step forward.

“I would like to thank all the guys back at the factory — it’s only qualifying but the work they’ve done in the last two or three weeks in order to bring the package earlier than it was planned was really, really impressive and that helped us to have a good performance today. Now we need to confirm that in the (sprint) race tomorrow and Sunday.

“There’s always something more (left out there). Turn 3 was not ideal, Turn 1 there were quite a few snaps — we tried to add a bit more front wing for the last run in Q3 and it was probably a tiny bit too much, but at the end of the day it’s part of the game. Very, very close to pole position, which is a good sign, but we all know that our weakness is the race, so we are waiting for the race to try and see if we confirm the positive signs that we’ve seen in Montreal.”

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Despite the strong one-lap performance, Leclerc says he’s more interested in learning more about the race pace of the Ferrari after an upgrade package that was introduced in Austria.

“All the effort is made to make our race pace better. So it is great to be on the front row, it is great to be close again to pole position — or at least to be fighting for it — but on the other hand we still need to wait because the points are scored on Sunday and since the beginning of the season that’s where the struggles are for us.”

Sainz was within 0.2s in third place during Friday’s qualifying for Sunday’s race, and he is hopeful of joining in a double podium for the team on Sunday but says the possibility of rain forecast for the sprint might impact the chances of repeating the performance on Saturday.

“It was good, I think we had a strong qualifying as a team and definitely felt like we made some progress recently,” Sainz said. “I think we still have a lot of the weekend ahead of us. At least for today we put ourselves in a good position for Sunday to try and get a podium with both cars. I think tomorrow will be a different day with different forecast, different track conditions, so it could also be a very different picture and we just need to stay focused.

“Obviously we are in parc ferme so it’s not like we can improve the car a lot from today to tomorrow, but we will look into the smallest details and the smallest things to see if we can pick up a tenth or two… but I think the conditions tomorrow are going to be very, very different.”