Charles Leclerc on new power unit, how SF21 has improved and aggressiveness on track. Charles interview.

Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc on the new power unit, how SF21 has improved and aggressiveness on track:

Where is the car better than last year?
Charles Leclerc: “In the balance itself. In the way it behaves from entrance to exit of the corner. I think it is a little bit better. A bit easier to drive and this is nice already. And then we had some positives signs. But again, quite difficult to judge until we put everything on the limit in qualifying. We are as ready as we can be. It‘s only been 3 days which is quite a lot shorter than in the past. We did everything we wanted to do in these 3 days. It was a nice preparation and now it is up to the track to see our real performance.”

And the new power unit?
Charles Leclerc: “As I said, we just have to wait for qualifying once we put everything flat out to see how much of a step we did.”

On giving everything on the track:
“For me something that I learned in my career, when I was younger, starting in karting to now, and that I also use in my normal life, is probably to never give up. Whatever you want, just go for it. It might not be a smooth road, and sometimes you have more difficult moments but never lose your goal and keep working towards it, without giving up.”

Ahead of the season opener in Bahrain, Charles was asked about his aggressiveness in 2020 and the example of his grid penalty-inducing Sakhir Grand Prix collision with Sergio Perez – to which he offered a sarcastic “thanks for reminding me of that beautiful moment last year. It was definitely a difficult moment for the team and I was extremely motivated to do something special. And that motivation sometimes translated into crashes on the track, which was not great. But as I’ve done in the past with my mistakes I always try to understand why I’ve done them and not do them again. So I will still be as motivated to try and do great results and we’ll have to see where we are exactly, to adapt my aggressivity on track – but of course I will try not to reproduce these types of mistakes.” – Charles concluded.