Ferrari: a lesson from Carlos Sainz in Australia and technical step Charles Leclerc must take amid Red Bull fight. Ferrari: Carlos Sainz wins, Charles Leclerc must work to solidify his position.

Scuderia Ferrari must firmly keep their feet on the ground after the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, despite the fact that the one-two finish crafted by the Carlos Sainz – Charles Leclerc duo at the 5.278-kilometre Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne makes the fans of the Prancing Horse dream after a long time. Formula 1 is not only the pinnacle of motorsport but also an extremely popular environment, where the audience rejoices, in this case for the Scuderia’s great achievement on Sunday morning. A red dawn that made the awakening of millions of European Ferrari fans sweet last weekend following the Australian Grand Prix, with the Tifosi finally able to listen to the Italian national anthem and, above all, avoid the tedious Dutch song which frankly had become a bit tiresome, with all due respect to Max Verstappen and the Netherlands.

A triumph achieved by Ferrari with great strength in Melbourne, exploiting the negative case concerning “poor reliability” which, for once, rightly two years later, struck the number 1 car of the reigning world champion. In a previous article we shed light on the triggering motivations regarding the technical failure suffered by the Red Bull RB20 of Max Verstappen at the Albert Park circuit, a “stupid” small issue, as he himself defined it, which, analyzing the facts, seems to exclude the occlusion of a hydraulic duct in favor of a simple damage to a dry-break connector, a system that allows the caliper to be removed without affecting the system. So no big problem for Red Bull in view of the next races, but a simple malfunctioning of a piece of equipment that at times is inevitable given the technological complexity of these cars.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning McLaren’s performance in the Australian Grand Prix. The Woking team, in fact, put together a truly solid weekend, with an MCL38 car that compared to the previous two rounds found a decidedly more factual working point so much so that, data in hand, the excellent qualifying session of Lando Norris would have allowed the British ex-teammate of Carlos Sainz to precede Charles Leclerc at the finish line. This concrete possibility was there as we pointed out in a previous analysis of the events that occurred in the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign, but which eventually did not materialize thanks to the solid work done by the Maranello pitwall and the Monegasque driver.

All this to underline one fact: one swallow does not make a summer, as they say. Without a doubt, it is correct to rejoice over such a one-two result of this magnitude. However, the ability to stay focused on the goal without getting distracted is crucial. The bar is raised since the clues to beat Red Bull are many, and, at the moment, “solely” Melbourne certainly cannot grant fanciful flights to the Ferrari Racing Division. Fortunately, Frederic Vasseur knows his stuff. The French manager firmly holds the working group and has shown he can handle the strong pair of drivers: “the chosen one and the exiled one” sort to speak, two drivers who will have to coexist before saying goodbye at the end of the Formula 1 season.

Ferrari: Carlos Sainz wins, Charles Leclerc must work to solidify his position

The spotlight is rightly all on Carlos Sainz after the Melbourne race. The Spaniard put together an amazing race weekend, especially considering the physical problems regarding the quick recovery from the surgery for appendix removal just two weeks before the Australian Grand Prix. The Spanish driver was in doubt until the end, and nevertheless, he was able to fully exploit the concession from Red Bull, which, for once, “decided” to step aside and give the common mortals the chance to compete for something great. Carlos Sainz saw the opportunity and, like a good sniper, didn’t waste it by hitting target number 1: victory.

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And in all this, where is Charles Leclerc? The Monegasque driver proved to be a team player, acknowledged the better work done by his Maranello teammate and congratulated him: as soon as he got out of his number 16 SF-24 car, he went to Carlos, who, even in the cockpit of the red car, received the most sincere compliments for the epic triumph at the Albert Park circuit. Walking away, the Ferrari driver also gave a pat of esteem on the tire of the left rear SF-24 because the car shaped by project 676 finally knows how to make itself respected and to manage the dreadful Pirelli tires. It’s not the strongest, but it has potential, important distinctive traits that if developed properly by the technical department managed by Enrico Cardile, could enhance its performance value to further close the gap on Red Bull throughout the championship.

However, we should not miss the opportunity to emphasize a great truth of Formula 1. Because if, as mentioned, Charles Leclerc’s congratulations to Carlos Sainz seem more than sincere, the same honesty must be emphasized for another factor: your teammate is always your first opponent, regardless of circumstances. As happened to Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc too must improve and mature. Talent is not lacking; on the contrary, it can undoubtedly be stated that the Monegasque driver lacks nothing in this regard even compared to the three-time Formula 1 world champion of Red Bull.

However, the learning curve towards a status of total leader passes through psychological maturation. Max Verstappen himself, with a car under his backside at the level, has been able to eliminate mistakes and way too aggressive moves in his driving that often led to the waste of important results. A psychological step that allows you to maximize the two qualities to put them at the service of the car. Also dragging the team. In this sense, Charles Leclerc still has work to do.

Ferrari: Charles Leclerc “grinds his teeth” and must learn the lesson taught by Sainz

At the same time, the fortunes of the Monegasque cannot be compared to those of the contemporary Red Bull driver since unlike Max Verstappen, the Ferrari driver has only been able to take advantage of a competitive car for the fight at the top, give or take for just five months, in the first half of the 2022 Formula 1 season, when Charles Leclerc secured three wins and could have scored at least three more had it not been for power unit reliability problems and a few questionable strategy decisions made by the Maranello pitwall.

Before and after the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 season, there was nothing better for the Monegasque. All considering that from the 2025 F1 championship, he will have to approach a titanic challenge: sharing the Maranello garage with a certain Lewis Hamilton, the most successful Formula One driver ever who certainly does not arrive in Maranello just to spend his retirement like an ex-athlete enjoying La Dolce Vita of Italy.

For this reason, a 360-degree improvement is expected from Charles Leclerc, not only in terms of pure speed, an intrinsic characteristic that has never been lacking in him, but rather in terms of consistency of performance and race management. Realistically, Charles Leclerc is grinding his teeth terribly after the Australian Grand Prix and cannot see the weekend at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne as anything else but a missed opportunity to secure a race win. And it is true. During the last two years, Scuderia Ferrari has only won two Grands Prix, and looking at the championship books, it is clear that the signature on the victories is that of Carlos Sainz.

Charles Leclerc must learn from these lessons because in Australia, he showed that he is not always ready for the golden opportunity, especially if we look at the Saturday qualifying session, the moment when the former Alfa Romeo driver squandered the chances of triumph, despite the fact that flying laps in qualifying are one of his main strengths. The same scenario happened in Singapore at the Marina Bay Street Circuit last season. After all, if when an opportunity opens, your teammate beats you, then the “damage” is done. For this reason, during the ongoing racing campaign, if further opportunities arise to defeat the very solid Red Bull RB20 car of Max Verstappen, the driver from Monaco must necessarily be ready.

In some ways, the situation is paradoxical, as Scuderia Ferrari chose the Monegasque between the two and offered him an impressive contract extension with some very good terms of conditions in favour the driver, while the Spaniard was discarded to make room for Lewis Hamilton from next year. This explains how there is no lack of confidence from the team which, on the contrary, has bet heavily on him to nourish the much-desired aspirations. Let’s be clear: in Melbourne, Charles Leclerc’s result and overall performance is still very good. He finished second. Nevertheless, if he didn’t win, he can only blame himself.

Therefore, while waiting to understand if the Ferrari SF-24 car will be able to fight with the Milton Keynes team on other race tracks, Charles Leclerc must show that he has the ability to reach the finish line before his teammate, who has an expiration date on his shoulders. This is because, as happens within any Formula 1 team, no driver is happy to be behind the one who shares the garage with you every Sunday race. Moreover, considering that Frederic Vasseur has currently chosen not to make favorites despite the future of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Already in the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit, the next race of the Formula 1 championship, we will see what happens in this regard.

Source: Alessandro Arcari for FUnoanalisitecnica