Charles Leclerc: "Ferrari will improve, but if Red Bull finds another second, everything will be relative"

Charles Leclerc: “Ferrari will improve, but if Red Bull finds another second, everything will be relative”. Charles Leclerc and Ferrari's prospects for 2024.

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari’s prospects for 2024

In the 2023 Formula 1 championship, compared to 2022, Scuderia Ferrari failed to make a significant leap forward in terms of performance. At the beginning of the 2022 F1 season, the F1-75 was on par with Red Bull for half the season and was the car to beat on more than one Sunday. However, the SF-23 only secured victories twice in 2023, in Singapore and Las Vegas. On the other hand, Red Bull managed to significantly improve its car between 2022 and 2023, going from 17 wins in 2022 to 21 in 2023. According to Christian Horner, the car in 2023 was 60% the car seen in the previous championship.

In Maranello, they have prepared a new chassis and rear end to capitalize on the lessons learned in 2022 and 2023 regarding what works in terms of performance on ground-effect cars. Charles Leclerc has no doubt that Ferrari will progress in 2024, but in Formula 1, everything is relative based on how much opponents manage to improve from one year to the next. “I am 100% convinced that we will take a step forward in 2024,” said the Monegasque driver in an interview with the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport. “The problem is that in Formula 1, everything is relative. If Red Bull finds another second, we will all seem ‘overtaken’ once again.” – the Ferrari driver pointed out.

“Compared to Red Bull, we need to recover several tenths in race pace, not just one,” added the Ferrari driver. “This means that the amount of work is significant, but everyone within the team is well aware of the situation. We don’t tell ourselves lies within the team, and that’s why I have full confidence that sooner or later, we will complete our performance chase. What I can’t do is set a timeframe.” – Charles Leclerc concluded.