Charles Leclerc is concerned about the prospect of a “DRS train” complicating his attempts to mount a comeback from 12th on the grid in Saudi Arabia.
The Ferrari driver wound up second in qualifying but will drop 10 places after he was forced to take on a third Control Electronics engine component this weekend.
Although Leclerc is hoping to quickly surge back through to the battle at the front, he is sceptical about the close nature of the midfield pack stunting his progress.
“I don’t know how easy it’s going to be to overtake on this track because the midfield seems to be all extremely close in terms of race pace,” he commented. “And if you have a DRS train, then it makes things very difficult.
“But I’ll give my best and try to come back to the front as quickly as possible and we’ll see what happens.”
Leclerc was able to deliver a blinding effort during the final stages of Q3 to end up half-a-second clear of his team-mate and only a tenth-and-a-half shy of Sergio Perez in pole position.
While the Monegasque racer was pleased with his run to second, he insists Ferrari requires further improvement to match a Red Bull outfit he referred to as being on “another planet.”
“In the lap, I’m really, really happy – it was really on the limit,” he enthused.
“On the other hand, I feel like the Red Bulls are quite far ahead. And that is our goal – to beat them. So there’s still a lot of work to do.
“Having said that, I think it’s a bit better than what we expected for this qualifying session. We expected to be a bit further back, but there’s a lot of work to do still.”
Ferrari had ended all three practice sessions not troubling the top of the timesheets, with Leclerc admitting the Italian team had been struggling for speed.
But after its Bahrain race was hampered by a repeat of its tyre degradation woes from last year, Leclerc is confident Ferrari’s race pace will be a much-improved asset.
“To be honest, if you ask me to pinpoint one thing, it’s very difficult,” he issued. “It’s just that we were quite slow. Just overall grip to be honest.
“I think our race pace is stronger this weekend, so this is a good thing.”
Ferrari’s other driver, Carlos Sainz, confessed to struggling with his SF-23 on the challenging streets of Jeddah but will line up as its lead runner in Sunday’s race.
Despite his troubles with the car in qualifying, Leclerc believes Sainz, starting fourth, is still the most likely of the pairing to get one of the red cars on the podium.
“I think for Carlos, it’s definitely possible. He’s starting a bit further up,” he said.
“On my side, realistically, I think it’s going to be a bit more difficult, especially once I arrive around the top cars – because there, the race pace is very similar to everybody.”
Aside from aiming to make positive inroads through the field, Leclerc will also likely have to contend with the looming threat of Max Verstappen looking to scythe his way past.
The reigning World Champion had dominated the entire weekend in Saudi Arabia, topping every session, until a driveshaft issue midway through Q2 halted his charge.
Having failed to register a representative lap time, Verstappen will line up 15th on the grid in his Red Bull, three places behind Leclerc’s Ferrari.
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