Charles Leclerc says Ferrari must have the ambition of winning this year’s Formula 1 championship, after unveiling its SF-23 on Tuesday.
Ferrari returned to front-running contention in 2022, after two years in which it struggled for performance, and it led the championship during the early stages of the campaign.
But its challenge faltered amid reliability setbacks, team blunders and driver errors as it went on to finish a distant second in both championships, having failed to win a race after mid-season.
Ferrari presents its SF-23 during a grand ceremony at Maranello on Tuesday, with Leclerc giving the car its public debut, completing two laps of Fiorano per Formula 1’s regulations concerning demonstration days.
“It’s difficult to go into details, but we gave the feedback of the first feeling – it ran well, smooth, and everything went really well,” said Leclerc.
Leclerc, entering his fifth season with Ferrari, explained that “on the simulator it feels positive – there are some differences [to 2022] so we need to adapt a little bit on the driving style – but overall the feeling is good.
“It seems the weaknesses we had last year are better for this year, which is the goal, but we still need to wait.”
On Ferrari’s overall ambitions for 2023 Leclerc asserted that “we want to improve – last year was a good step forward, we need to do the same this year and hopefully get the championship, that is the target for all the team and it is the target for me too.
“[We need to] get more wins, hopefully be more consistent from the first race to the last race and hopefully we’ll get that title.”
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