Leclerc notes weakness Ferrari’s Imola F1 upgrades aim to cure

Charles Leclerc hopes that Ferrari’s substantial Formula 1 upgrades scheduled for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will help cure its slow-speed weakness.

Ferrari has sustained an encouraging opening to the season, with its revamped SF-24 car delivering six podiums and a 1-2 result in Australia from the first six rounds.

But while Leclerc recorded a double top-three finish in Miami, the Italian marque lagged behind both Red Bull and McLaren, which won the race through Lando Norris.

The Woking-based squad has edged Ferrari at the previous two rounds and introduced several developments in Miami, with the Scuderia now set to respond at Imola.

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Leclerc has again pinpointed low-speed cornering as the main area where Ferrari has been spurning time to its rivals during the nascent stages of the 2024 campaign.

“Upgrades are going to be key for this year,” Leclerc said post-race in Miami.

“However, I think we have a bit of a weakness on this car which is the low-speed corners and we were struggling a bit more compared to them in the low-speed corners.

“And we are losing a lot of lap time so I think part of it will be hopefully improved with the future upgrades.”

Ferrari was present at Fiorano last week prior to the grand prix weekend to utilise its remaining filming days to shakedown the various revised parts it will implement.

The squad’s upgrades will coincide with its opening home race of the term, but Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur denied that it had been pre-planned to transpire like that.

“When you are doing the development, it’s not that we want to bring something in Imola because it’s in Italy,” he asserted.

“We are pushing for the development. And as soon as we are ready, we are producing parts.

“The fact that Imola is close to the factory, it’s also helping to bring something because we can release the parts a bit later.

“But it was nothing to do with Italy. And then again on this, we don’t have to expect that it will be a game changer, but it’s so tight that this can bring performance.”