Charles Leclerc outlines main problem amid Ferrari SF-23 pace deficit to Red Bull RB19

Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has disclosed that he had to take care of his Formula 1 tires during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit in order to prevent them from getting damaged due to overuse. The Ferrari man had secured pole position in Baku with an impressive lap in the first qualifying session, but as expected he was swiftly overtaken by rivals Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez from Red Bull, while he fought for the third spot on the podium against the Aston Martin car of Fernando Alonso.

The Monegasque ultimately claimed his first podium finish of the 2023 Formula One championship and held off a late challenge from Fernando Alonso, setting the quickest lap of the race in the final stages, before Mercedes driver George Russell eventually pitted on the penultimate lap of the race and easily secured the the bonus point with the soft tyres. However, when questioned about his unexpected acceleration, the Monegasque driver clarified that he had to conserve his Pirelli tires as they were prone to high degradation, a key issues Ferrari has been facing in this first part of the F1 campaign:

“Well, we have to with our car otherwise we kill [the tyres] and then we cannot get them back and then this has a big influence on our performance,” Charles Leclerc pointed out at the end of the 2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a discussion with the reporters when quizzed about how the tyres performed on his SF-23 single-seater in the Baku race.

“So, I think we did the perfect management today. But, we are just not quick enough. Whether we lack at the beginning of the stint, or at the end of the stint, this we can change but yeah, we just don’t have enough performance for now. At the end, it [was] the same car [in the sprint and Grand Prix], I managed it differently, but actually the outcome doesn’t change. We’ve optimised absolutely everything. The thing we should be happy about after a weekend like this is that we’ve maximised every session. I don’t think we could have done anything better in any of those sessions. So that is a positive – but still a lot of work to do in terms of race pace.” – the Monegasque driver continued.

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Scuderia Ferrari has been competing with Mercedes and Aston Martin for the second position while Red Bull has been dominating the field and this unfortunately will most likely not change in the following rounds. In the previous race held in Australia, Mercedes showed stronger performance. However, in the latest race, the Maranello team emerged as the strongest challenger, with a solid progress for the SF-23 car. Despite this, Charles Leclerc still believed that their race pace was inferior to Fernando Alonso’s as he was able to gain a 3-second advantage over him in the final laps and finished the Baku race just 0.807s behind the Ferrari man:

“We got closer, maybe a little bit, but we’re still very far behind in race pace, and I think we’re also behind Aston Martin in terms of race pace. We really need to work on that for now, because over one lap, taking a bit more risks did two great laps in qualifying which helped us to be in front, but then over 51 laps in the race, there is not much we can do.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded at the end of the fourth round of the 2023 Formula 1 championship.