Charles Leclerc has revealed that Ferrari’s upgrades at this weekend’s Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix have come too soon to resolve the squad’s low-speed weakness.
Ferrari has emerged with renewed competitiveness this season with a revamped 2024 car that has delivered two victories and nine podiums from the first nine races.
Despite the SF-24 having dialled out the capricious traits of its predecessor, the team has discovered a deficit to its rivals in slow-speed corners in the nascent events.
But while Ferrari has brought a huge upgrade package to Barcelona, Leclerc has said it will comprise pre-planned developments tailored towards overall performance.
“We have seen since two or three races, I mean since China especially, that we have this weakness with low-speed corners,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“We’ll try to tackle, however, it was too short term to tackle it with this one.
“I think this one is just to try and improve the package overall, as every team try to add a little bit of downforce, try to take off a little bit of drag, and then you’ve got a better car.
“So this is what we are trying to do with this package just to improve it a little bit everywhere.
“And then for the longer term developments we’ll target more what we have since the beginning of the year.”
Mercedes endured trouble optimising its car between high speed and low speed earlier in the season, but Leclerc divulged that Ferrari’s issue is a “bit more complex.”
Instead, the Monegasque has explained that Ferrari’s main weakness is an inherent problem which will continue to be a hindrance until it develops additional updates.
“I think the way our car works, we struggle a little bit too much with the balance of the car in low, long speed corners, in long low-speed corners I’ll make it,” he added.
“So yeah, it’s just in these particular corners that our car, the way it’s designed, is not performing the way we want to.
“We have ideas already how to optimise our package in those situations and in a better way than what we’ve done in China, which was where we were struggling the most.
“But there’s still a lot of work to do, but I don’t think that the problem is to find the balance between high and low speed.
“I just think that even if we optimise the low speed, we wouldn’t be as good as a McLaren or a Red Bull. So there’s just work to do.”
Leclerc has reiterated his credence that Red Bull will return to being the benchmark team on a more conventional track where its kerb-riding woes won’t be exposed.
“My personal opinion is that we will see a stronger Red Bull and a Red Bull that we have seen at the beginning of the season back here in Barcelona,” he claimed.
“Just because the track layout normally, I would see a Red Bull going very fast around here and I do also believe that the last four races from Miami to the last race in Canada was quite a lot about kerb riding as well and it’s probably not one of the strengths of the Red Bulls. So I believe we’ll see them back to a really good level this weekend.”
But Leclerc harbours optimism that the Maranello-based squad’s new parts will help to bridge the gap to Red Bull to provide encouragement for the remaining races.
“However, we also have some new parts in the car for this weekend and if that helps us to be very close here it’s a good sign for the rest because normally Barcelona is quite representative for the rest of the season,” he continued. “So it’s going to be an interesting weekend and if we are in the fight here it’s a good sign for the rest of the year.”
