Charles Leclerc has admitted that he has been surprised that McLaren has developed into a position to be a genuine match to Red Bull in the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Red Bull began the current campaign appearing to have maintained its previous dominance under the current regulations with three 1-2 finishes in the first four races.
However, McLaren has emerged as a consistent challenger to Red Bull since implementing an update package in Miami that inspired Lando Norris to his maiden win.
The Woking-based squad, which took a 1-2 in the Hungarian Grand Prix, has capitalised on Sergio Perez’s woes in the sister Red Bull to eradicate the gap to 42 points.
Leclerc, whose Ferrari team has regressed since an encouraging opening to 2024, has concurred that he didn’t expect Red Bull to be caught this soon into the season.
“I don’t think we had much expectations when we got into the season,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week. “We’re just really much focusing on ourselves.
“But it’s, as I said, very difficult to expect or anticipate anything with these new regulations, or new regulations that are not new anymore, but with these cars.
“So, yeah, we did not expect to be where we are, but we are here and we are very much aware of where the areas where we need to work.
“We are putting absolutely everything in order to turn the situation around as quickly as possible.
“I mean McLaren have done a great job and I mean if you will have asked me at the beginning of the season whether they will be at the level of Red Bull so early on I probably wouldn’t have expected that, no.”
Along with McLaren, Mercedes has turned around its earlier-season struggles to seize three victories in four races up to the summer break with an upgraded W15 car.
But while he acknowledges that five winners in the previous seven races has been a good advert for the sport, Leclerc would rather witness sustained Ferrari success.
“I mean it’s nice for Formula 1,” he said. “On one side, the biggest part of me wished there was a total domination by Ferrari and it would be a very boring season in that sense.
“But it’s not and we’ve still got a lot of work to do and obviously with the last few races we are not in the momentum of fighting for wins at the moment.
“So we’ve just got to focus on ourselves. But it’s true that it’s good and interesting for Formula 1 to have different winners, to have different teams developing their cars in a really good way and this makes it very interesting.”
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