Charles Leclerc expects Ferrari to make a “big step forward” once it eradicates the bouncing issues that have halted the Scuderia’s progress in recent rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign.
Ferrari was the first team to halt the Red Bull winning charge this term with Carlos Sainz’s success in Australia and Leclerc capped off a dominant weekend with victory in Monaco.
However, an upgrade package introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix in June brought with it bouncing (colloquially known as porpoising) issues with Ferraris 2024 F1 challenger.
A single third-place finish for Sainz in Austria has been the only highlight for Ferrari since the Spanish upgrade was produced and the Scuderia has fallen behind McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes in the pecking order across the last four rounds.
Still, Leclerc is confident that once Ferrari can put a stop to its bouncing problem, the team will be back in contention.
“I think once we’ll erase our bouncing issue completely, I think we can find back a really good level of performance,” the Monegasque driver said.
“That’s what has been slowing us down a little bit in the development race and that’s where we are focusing at the moment.
“Once the bouncing will be gone, I think it will help us do quite a big step forward.”
Coming into this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, the last before the Summer break, Leclerc feels that bouncing will remain an issue, making the fight with the top three teams tricky.
Leclerc finished fourth in Hungary with bouncing mitigated through a combination of a modified floor and the Hungaroring’s low-speed configuration, but he expects Spa to be a tougher prospect.
“It’s very difficult to anticipate where we’ll be, especially because we are relying on the issues we’ve had in the last few races, and I believe that Spa probably will put a bit more in evidence this bouncing problem, and if we do, then we might struggle a bit more,” Leclerc explained.
“If we don’t, then I think that we can have quite a strong weekend, but based on what we know, we think that it might be a weekend that will be a bit more difficult for us.
“McLaren has done a big step forward now, and is consistently beating us, so I don’t really think that they could be a target for this weekend.
“However, with Mercedes it’s going to be close and especially in the moment of the season that we are in now, it’s a matter of losing the least possible points to the leaders, which are McLaren and Red Bull at the moment, and then capitalise once we have the new parts on our car, which hopefully will come soon, in order to close the gap to those two teams.”
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