Charles Leclerc is bracing himself for a potentially difficult weekend ahead as the final leg of the season kicks off in Singapore.
Ferrari had a great showing in front of their home crowd at Monza, where the track characteristics allowed them to maximise the potential of their package on home soil. The Maranello-based team were easily the second force behind Red Bull, and Sainz and Leclerc kept the fans on their toes with their intense battle for third down to the chequered flag.
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
“It was a really fun fight,” Leclerc commented.
“Of course, Carlos liked it a lot less than me, but that’s part of racing. That’s why I love racing. I experienced those battles a lot with Max, especially in karts. These battles make F1 so beautiful.”
Speaking to the media ahead of this year’s Singapore Grand Prix, Leclerc revealed that—although he feels the team is making progress and moving in the right direction developmentally—he expects Ferrari to struggle more than they did in Italy.
“We learned plenty during Monza, especially about our weaknesses. And it confirmed that we were stronger on low downforce trucks, which obviously for here, it’s going to be a bit more of a difficult weekend for us.
“But there might be few things that will help us here. I mean, again, after Monza we understood more things which are good for this year, even though it will be a small step in the right direction,” Leclerc said.
He added that he anticipates Ferrari will be closer to the likes of Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin, rather than Red Bull, throughout the weekend.
“I think [the issue] is the overall performance we’ll have this weekend.
“It’s quite difficult to get from one weekend in Monza where we are fighting for third position and we are clearly the second strongest team on track to a weekend like this where we need to reset a little bit and where we each will be much closer, at least with Mercedes with McLaren, with also Aston Martin.
“So yeah, we just need to reset a little bit more.”
