Charles Leclerc says Ferrari has altered its approach to pre-season testing in the wake of the lessons it learned 12 months ago.
Ferrari set the quickest time during last year’s pre-season test but was overhauled by Mercedes, and went on to take only three wins, as its title challenge failed to materialise.
On the opening day of testing Leclerc – who was a late replacement for the unwell Sebastian Vettel – finished outside of the top 10 on the final classification.
“Of course we changed a little bit our approach compared to last year,” he said.
“Last year the testing was great but the first race was a bit less great and I think we’ve learnt a few things on this.
“This year we’ve decided to focus a bit more on ourselves and trying to learn the car as much as possible in these first days and then focus on performance a bit later on and we will see if that pays off.”
Leclerc added that Ferrari has attempted to have a greater flexibility in the set-up of its SF1000 in order to assist his cause.
“Last year there were noting all my comments so they obviously know me a lot better as a driver and what I need, what balance I need to perform at my best on track,” he said.
“They tried to have the flexibility in the car setup to fit my driving style, which will be the biggest difference for this year. This should be a step forward.
“We didn’t push the car yet but we know we have more flexibility, this is fact.”
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