Two years ago, Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc dominated the weekend in Australia at the Albert Park circuit, describing the F1-75 single-seater at the end of the Melbourne race as “a beast.” At that moment, the Monegasque seemed to be in control of the Formula 1 championship with two wins and a second place in the first three races of the season against Max Verstappen’s two retirements, as the Dutchman had only won in Saudi Arabia. At that time, no one could have imagined that Charles Leclerc would only win one of the next 19 races, with Max Verstappen winning 14 of them.
The 2023 Australian Grand Prix was one to forget for Charles Leclerc, ending up in the gravel during the first lap after attempting an overtake on the outside against the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll. The SF-23 car was a major disappointment from the winter pre-season testing session and it took the Ferrari technicians several months to identify the right fixes, which found their final reward in the SF-24, which showed the biggest performance leap compared to the 2023 and 2024 F1 cars.
For now, Red Bull has proven to be unbeatable both in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The current balance of power, which sees the RB20 with a 3-4 tenths advantage over the SF-24 in terms of race pace, could be challenged by in-season development and upgrades which are gradually introduced on the car (Ferrari could recover or Red Bull could even extend its lead). However, upgrades won’t be a priority in Australia according to Charles Leclerc:
“I don’t think we’ll have big updates in Melbourne,” explained the Ferrari driver at the end of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix press conference. “Without updates, we’ll focus on maximizing the package we have. We made progress in Saudi Arabia, but for the step we need to get closer to Red Bull, we have to wait for the updates and see what kind of progress we make.” – the Ferrari man concluded.
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