Leclerc: Strong FP1 and right set-up crucial to US GP weekend

Charles Leclerc says only a strong opening session in Austin and the right set-up will put Ferrari among the front-runners at the Circuit of the Americas.

The Scuderia heads into this weekend’s 18th round of the 2023 world championship third in F1’s Constructors’ standings, 28 points behind Mercedes, and determined to trim its rival’s advantage.

Ferrari enjoyed strong outings in Singapore and in Japan, with Carlos Sainz winning at Marina Bay, but its most recent display in Qatar yielded just 13 points, courtesy of Leclerc’s fifth-place finish at Lusail where Sainz’s evening was thwarted at the outset by a terminal fuel leak.

This weekend’s event features a sprint race on Saturday which means that the teams will operate once again on a compressed schedule, leaving everyone with just a single session to fine-tune their set-ups for the remainder of the race weekend.

• Read also: Sainz would expect title fight with Leclerc to be 'close'

“I think on paper, Qatar was probably one of the worst tracks for us, for the conditions, but also for the track characteristics in itself,” Leclerc replied when queried on Ferrari’s prospects in Austion relative to its rivals.

“Having said that, I think on Sprint weekends, the thing that has the most influence is how your FP1 goes, because then from FP1 you cannot change the car anymore.

“So the priority is to start FP1 strongly, and then to take the right decision with the set-up. And we know that this is crucial for the rest of the weekend. Much more than our car characteristics fitting the track.”

The Circuit of the Americas’ 5.5 km layout is mainly a medium to high-downforce venue, with several undulating sections that could challenge Ferrari’s SF-23.

This is where Leclerc believes the Italian outfit will need to get its set-up right for it to be able to engage with Mercedes and McLaren which are both looking strong for this weekend.

“Well, the high-speed is where you need confidence, that’s clear,” he said. “But where we’ve been lacking a bit more in the last few races was the medium, slow-speed corners.

“So this is where we’ll be focusing more.”

On the other side of the Scuderia’s garage, Sainz will be aiming for a clean weekend after his Sunday fuel leak disaster in Qatar. The Spaniard isn’t expecting more aggravation on that front.

“No, we’ve changed a lot of parts in the car to try and obviously correct the issue that affected us in Qatar,” he said.

“We are trying also to find solutions in the long term, not only in the short term because it’s definitely something that we are not happy with and we’ve also had issues in the past.

“So yeah, a bit of a headache that is giving us this fuel tank now and then, but we’ll try and put it back together this weekend and hopefully there shouldn’t be any issues anytime soon.”

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