Charles Leclerc is so far satisfied with the changes Frederic Vasseur and his team have made, but also admits that he does not yet know how this will work in practice. He also thinks that not much is known about the pecking order for next weekend.
In 2022, the Monegask turned out to be Max Verstappen’s biggest challenger, but after a great start, Leclerc’s season deteriorated rapidly and the gap to Verstappen grew bigger and bigger. A second place, just ahead of Sergio Pérez, turned out to be the highest possible. Strategic blunders and the lack of reliability was the biggest problem in 2022. This has to change in 2023, and a new team boss (Vasseur) and strategic boss (Ravin Jain) has been appointed for that purpose. This, in combination with a more reliable engine, should be the formula for success for Leclerc and Ferrari.
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Vasseur implements changes
At Thursday’s press conference in Bahrain, Leclerc discussed what makes Vasseur so good as team principal. “Vasseur is good at getting the most out of people by putting them in the right places. We can see that right now. He will discover a lot more now that we start racing. It’s still early, but it feels good. It’s It’s impressive to see how quickly he feels at home with this team.” So there has also been a lot of change in the strategic area. Leclerc is satisfied with what he has seen so far. However, he does not want to say much about it. “There have indeed been some changes, but I don’t want to comment too much on that. We are doing what is best for the team. Fred has just arrived and we can’t say much about that yet. Time will tell if this is the right thing to do.” choices were.”
Differences in the front
Leclerc is still in the dark about what the difference with Red Bull is, but the Monegask is basically focusing on Verstappen’s team. “That’s the goal. They’ve had a good start. Max [Verstappen] looks strong. It’s hard to say after a few days of testing, but it looks like they’re just a little ahead of us. It’s still too early to say if [het gat met Red Bull] half a second.” Verstappen announced last weekend that Red Bull already has a few updates planned for the coming season. Leclerc, however, announced on Thursday that this is also the case at Ferrari. “I believe in my team and the updates we take with us. We already have something in the pipeline and it looks good.” According to Leclerc, Ferrari certainly didn’t put all their cards on the table last weekend in Bahrain. “No, we didn’t show everything, but neither did Red Bull. No one. We will see that in qualifying. The global picture tells me we are a bit behind.”
