It’s evident that the reigning champions have no intention to rest on their laurels even after a record-crushing 2023 season. Instead of playing it safe and building on the existing philosophy of their single-seater, Red Bull opted for a more radical design path with the RB20. All signs point towards them being the team to beat yet again this year.
But their rivals haven’t been standing still over the winter months either: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is largely satisfied with the team’s improved understanding of their car.
“I think it’s very difficult to judge how much risk every team has taken,” Leclerc said, as reported by RACER magazine.
“Obviously, visually the Red Bull is looking very different this year compared to last year, I think you have to go really under cover to understand how much risk they’ve been taking.
“On our side I don’t think it’s a matter of how much risk you’re taking, just how much understanding you have on your own car, and on this we have done a huge step forward from Zandvoort last year. We have done quite big changes to the car in FP1, FP2, to try and understand a bit more about these new cars, and after this race we did quite a lot of steps forward in our understanding and different new parts we brought to the car.
“As soon as you understand, it’s easier to actually find the direction to push into to have the gains. Before that, maybe we didn’t have the understanding of exactly how to extract the performance out of these new philosophy of cars.”
Leclerc pointed out that it’s difficult to gauge Red Bull’s maximum performance as the reigning champions didn’t run a full race simulation during the three-day testing period.
“The thing is that Red Bull is one of the only teams that didn’t run a full simulation during the test, which is normally what helps us to understand where we are exactly, so it’s very difficult to know where they are,” he said.
“We did one, so we know where we are, obviously. Some of the teams have done some race runs, so we have kind of an idea where they stand, but Red Bull is not the case, so for now it’s impossible to understand where we are.”
Leclerc also praised Ferrari’s efforts to resolve the wind sensitivity issue that affected the SF-23.
“On our side it’s quite a lot better,” he told the media.
“Last year’s car, I think one of the main weaknesses was the wind sensitivity. Whenever the wind will change a tiny bit, our car will be extremely difficult to drive. Huge differences in terms of balance from one corner to the other.
“And this year we are in a much better place for that. So it is definitely a step forward on that. It was wanted, we worked a lot on it, and we had the confirmation already from the first day.”
He continued, saying that Ferrari was able to corroborate the promising sim data after running the car in pre-season testing.
“Honestly, from the first lap on the simulator, it felt like an easier car to drive whenever we drove with some wind. And similar on the track from the very first laps here.
“Once we got here, the feeling was good. We managed to be consistent straight away. And this will help the race runs.”
Leclerc remained cautiously optimistic, pointing out that the true impact of these improvements on the overall performance is yet to be determined.
“However, as I’ve said these past few days, drivability and competitiveness are two very different things. Last year we were struggling a lot to be consistent, because the car was just a little bit all over the place whenever there was some wind.
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean, especially in qualifying, that we will win a lot thanks to that. And that doesn’t mean anything compared to Red Bull.”
On a positive note, he added that Ferrari has generally been strong in Bahrain (with Leclerc himself emerging victorious in the season opener in 2022).
“However, it’s a track where we’ve been strong in the past, and I hope that we can challenge for the win and of course if there’s an opportunity we will do absolutely everything to take it.”
As for Ferrari’s goals in 2024, Leclerc admitted that the aim is to return to challenging for wins more regularly.
“To be challenging for maybe more wins definitely would be a step forward and that would be a positive season. We need to continue the positive momentum from the second half of last year.
“The team and everyone in the paddock felt that we were in a positive spiral and were going towards better things and with a very clear vision of where we wanted to go and how to go there.
“This is exactly how we need to approach the season—significant steps forward every time we put something inside the car, which was the case in the second half of last year.”
