Having put behind a series of races where Ferrari faced the worst moment of the season, Charles Leclerc wants to get back to competing for the top positions in the standings starting this weekend, with the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Monegasque driver, together with the Maranello team, has experimented, sacrificed races to try to gather data on the package introduced in Barcelona which, however, caused bouncing in the SF-24. In Maranello, they are convinced they have understood what went wrong and have brought a modified floor to the Hungaroring precisely to try to eliminate the side effect that caused Ferrari to drop from being the main challenger to Red Bull to the fourth force in the Championship.
Charles, what kind of moment is Ferrari going through?
“I think our development up to Monaco was very good and I also believe, as I have said on several occasions, that Ferrari has been the team to improve the most from last September to now. Then in Montreal, we had an engine problem that cost us a good result. After that, from Barcelona onwards, updates caused bouncing. On my part, especially from that moment, I have tried to make even extreme changes to the setup to try to find a solution. In the end, that choice paid dividends because we gathered a lot of data, we understood what the problem was, and for us, it is important to lose as few races as possible to understand the problem. Now we have understood what the problem is and I believe that from now on we can do better. Here in Hungary, we will try to maximize the result and at Spa, we hope to do better.”
Will you use the new package starting tomorrow?
“I won’t go into details. You will see tomorrow if I will race with the new package or the old one. As I said, we have gathered a lot of data to understand the problem and I am confident, the team has done their homework well. But you will see tomorrow.”
Do you think the Hungaroring can be a good track to see any improvements you have made to the bouncing?
“I don’t think Hungary is the track where bouncing will be most visible. However, we have data from the last races that can tell us a lot if we are on the right path or the wrong one. I think Spa can be a more significant test for us, a much more meaningful test. But I am confident that things will get better in the future precisely because of the work done in the 4 races prior to this one.”
You have brought new parts to Hungary…
“The new parts we have brought are mainly to reduce bouncing.”
So what are you expecting from this weekend in terms of results?
“It’s hard to say what we can expect this weekend because for some time now among the top teams it’s a matter of 1 or at most 2 tenths of a gap. So it’s hard to know where we will be. But our goal is always to achieve the best possible result. The most important thing is to have a smooth weekend without too many changes to the setup. If we can do that, I am confident that we can get back to fighting for the top positions.”
Do you think there are still possibilities to develop the car’s floor and find performance or have you reached the limit of development?
“I believe there is always a window for improvement when it comes to the floor of these cars because the floor has such a high impact on aerodynamic load that it is always possible to gain something. Now the window for improvement is smaller because we have been using this regulation for a few years, but there is always something that can be improved. The details can make a difference. From Barcelona, we started having bouncing with the introduction of small details. So with small changes, you can generate big consequences like bouncing, but also the gain is always around the corner with small details. We have to keep pushing in that area.”
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