First impressions of Charles Leclerc on ‘very different’ 2022 Ferrari car. Charles confirms he’s driven early version of Ferrari’s 2022 car on simulator.

Arguably the biggest regulation change in Formula 1 history will take place in the 2022 season, and Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc confirmed that an early version of the Maranello team’s car for next season had felt “very different” when he’d tried it on the Italian side’s simulator.

Perhaps the two biggest changes to the 2022 regulations are the focus on using ground effect to create downforce and the switch to 18-inch tyres. And speaking ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Leclerc revealed his early impressions of the new car in the simulator.

“Yes we did,” said Charles Leclerc, when asked to confirm whether Ferrari’s drivers had tried a simulated version of the 2022 car. “But it’s still very, very early days… It feels very different,” he added. “Then I think it’s a question mark for everyone whether we are developing well or not. As I was saying, it’s such a different project, it’s very, very early days, so nobody knows where we are positioning ourselves compared to the others. But we are working on it.”

Asked specifically how he and Carlos Sainz were helping out on the 2022 project, Charles answered: “It is difficult because for now it’s only numbers and predictions, but we can definitely give our feedback, especially in the simulator. [We’re lucky] to have a very good simulator in Ferrari and we can try different things in that simulator and there, the driver input is very, very important. Then on other things for now, it’s very early days for us to actually say something. The only thing we can do is try to work in the best way possible with Carlos to try and explain what are the weaknesses of this year’s car, try to understand why we have those weaknesses and try to not reproduce those mistakes for next year’s car – even though the project is completely different. So I would say on the simulator, we’ve got quite a big input – and we can help a lot, and also with this year’s feedback to try and help the team to work in the right direction and for them to know exactly what they need to go quick.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded.