After a difficult triple header, Charles Leclerc finally had a strong showing at the Hungaroring last week.
Ferrari have been off their game in recent weeks, after introducing a problematic upgrade in Barcelona and spending the subsequent rounds trying to resolve the issues that arose as a result. Failing to finish in the top ten at both Spielberg and Silverstone, Leclerc was able to recover in Hungary. He was seemingly one of the few drivers who had a trouble-free race, demonstrating solid pace and excellent tyre management to finish fourth, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz.
“I mean the triple header was a tough one because we started it with a very bad result and unfortunately we had three bad results in a row,” Leclerc said on Thursday in Belgium.
“And then with Budapest being on the positive note helped me keeping the momentum and I’m actually very happy to be here and back in the car starting tomorrow and see whether we can still do steps forward.”
“Overall I would say that the feeling was really good in the race and that was the most important,” he added, regarding his outing in Hungary. “It was quite a few races that I didn’t have that feeling in during the race in terms of tyre management and car balance so that was positive.”
Leclerc has been candid about the team’s recent struggles, but maintains that motivation is high within the team to turn things around in the second half of the season.
“Obviously looking at the last four or five races, we are in a moment where we have struggled more,” he said.
“Apart from the last race, which I consider quite a good one where we maximised our potential, then of course we know that we have to improve our potential because for now it’s just not good enough.
“But we are on it and that doesn’t demotivate us. If anything it motivates us even more to come back to a good level of performance and to see again the winning trophy. There’s a big motivation in the team and I hope that this struggling moment will be the most short possible.”
He continued: “I think for us, as I said, it was super helpful for us to experience and to try different things in order to understand really well our issues and for the future it will help us for the development of the car. However, after three, four difficult weekends that’s enough points lost.
“From Budapest onwards we really said to ourselves, maybe we stop experiencing, we’ve learned enough and now we’ve got to focus on maximising our performance.
“We, I think, did quite a good job in Budapest and now it’s really the target once again here before the holidays to just maximise the car that we have. Let’s see also after FP1 whether our issues are very much there or if they are a bit less there and then we’ll try and maximise the result.”
Ferrari’s weakened post-upgrade form has also hampered their qualifying performance. Leclerc, who traditionally shines on one-lap pace, hasn’t qualified inside the top three since Monaco.
“No, I don’t think that we can change that tendency with the setup,” he admitted. “With the upgrade you kind of can change it because the issues that we are facing are more there in qualifying than in the race. If we fix those issues I’m pretty sure that the qualifying pace will be better so that’s where our focus is and naturally I think it will get back to what we’ve seen last year.”
Leclerc identified the porpoising issue as the main source of Ferrari’s current performance woes. He believes that solving it will allow Ferrari to finally make substantial gains in the development race.
“Once we erase our bouncing issue completely I think we can find back a really good level of performance. That’s what has been slowing us down a little bit in the development race and that’s where we are focusing in at the moment. So yeah, once the bouncing will be gone, I think it will help us do quite a big step forward.”
On a more pessimistic note, Leclerc expects Ferrari’s weaknesses to be exposed in Belgium, potentially leading to a difficult weekend for the team.
“It is very difficult to anticipate where we will be, especially because we are a bit relying on the issues we’ve had in the last few races. 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.
“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.”
