Charles Leclerc is set to go his own way with setup at this weekend’s Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix with Ferrari reportedly “hanging on” the “every word” of Lewis Hamilton.
A lot of attention has been paid to Hamilton at Ferrari so far, naturally, given that he’s newly arrived at the team.
The Scuderia has been focused on getting Hamilton to acclimate and bed in with his SF-25, a task which he feels is underestimated by the wider watching public.
“Outside of that garage, I think most people completely underestimate what we actually do and when we’re talking about set-up and the changes that we’re making, all the different graphs that you’re looking at for aero through corner balance, mechanical balance, floor balance, all these different things that we’re trying to play with and finesse through the weekend,” he told select media, including Motorsport Week, ahead of last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton finished that GP in seventh, while Leclerc finished a respectable fourth, but admitted frustration with the limitations of his current package.
Despite admitting after qualifying he’d made a personal breakthrough with the SF-25 that allowed him to be at the limit “more often,” Leclerc bemoaned post-race that “It’s disappointing because when you put everything together like we’ve done this weekend, I think the balance was in the right place, there’s just not enough performance in the car.
“For now, we’ve just got to maximise the points, which is what we have done, and I hope that later on in the season we can fight for better.”
Leclerc will test a new setup in Bahrain
This weekend in Bahrain, Leclerc is prepared to take a step towards solving Ferrari’s problems, which amount to just 35 points across three rounds.
Italian publication Corriere dello Sport writes that Leclerc informed Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur on Saturday night that ‘I’m going my own way’, and plans to start the Bahrain GP with a ‘very clear’ and ‘different’ setup direction.
Moreover, the report claims that Ferrari has been “has been hanging on Lewis’ every word” since his arrival.
Using Bahrain as a test-bed for a new setup direction is a sound idea by Leclerc, given there’s recent data from pre-season testing to compare with.
Vasseur said as much in his pre-race notes, pointing out that “With the fourth race of the season taking place in Bahrain, we get the opportunity to see how much progress we have made with the SF-25 in terms of extracting its potential since we were last here for the pre-season test at the very end of February.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, is also seeking improvements from his Ferrari package, explaining post-race at Suzuka that something specific needs to be addressed.
“I’m generally lacking performance compared to all the cars that are up ahead of me, particularly Mercedes, McLaren and obviously the Red Bull,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“We found something on the car that’s been underperforming for the last three races, so I’m really hoping when that’s fixed, I’ll start getting better results.”
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