Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is confident his team's hard work will help the Scuderia bridge the gap with Mercedes and achieve good results once the compressed campaign kicks off.
With Formula 1 working diligently towards an early summer start of its 2020 season, team talk is slowly switching from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis to the prospects that lie ahead.
Ferrari exited pre-season testing clearly lagging front-runner Mercedes whose Silver Arrow W11 set the pace in Barcelona back in February.
The aerodynamic package of the Scuderia's new SF1000 ensured good cornering speed for the design compared to its predecessor, but the increased downforce also implied a drop in straight-line performance relative to last year's SF90.
"I still believe we have been struggling a bit during testing so we need to catch up," Leclerc said in a recent video conference with the media.
"Whether we will be able to or not I don’t know, but last year we had a good progression throughout the year.
"I think we need to keep working as we did last year and I’m pretty sure the results will come."
Formula 1's current coronavirus shutdown, which was extended by four weeks on Tuesday by the FIA, has put on hold all design and development work.
If Austria is indeed confirmed as F1's curtain raiser, the lead-in time and preparation period for the race will be a little over a month, which leads Leclerc to believe that there will be no margin for error from the outset in terms of development when the racing resumes.
"It’s going to be a difficult season for everyone because as soon as it starts it’s not going to stop and we won’t have any breaks to develop the car more than the others," he said.
"So I think the work on track will be extremely important and more than it has been any other years because we will spend a lot of time on track whenever the season will restart.
"It’s going to be very important to be focused and ready from the first race onwards and us drivers need to be able to give the right feedback to the team and to try and help the team in the right direction straight away."
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