Charles Leclerc admits his ambitions with Ferrari this season go beyond a few wins but concedes that the true potential of the Scuderia will only be revealed after the first race.
While occasional victories have punctuated his journey in F1, the Monegasque driver yearns for a season where Ferrari is truly in the title hunt.
In 2022, the first year of the sport’s ground effect rules, Ferrari hit the ground running only to see its title aspirations crumble due to strategy blunders and car issues.
Last season, the Italian outfit was hindered by a troubled car concept that left Leclerc winless while teammate Carlos Sainz secured in Singapore the team’s only win and the only non-Red Bull victory of the year.
Unveiled earlier this week, Ferrari’s new SF-24 aims to bridge the performance gap with the mighty bulls. The team's ambition is clear: to return to regular race-winning form.
Read also:
However, when asked if he would be satisfied with two or three wins as part of his team’s progress, Leclerc's response was resolute.
“No, it’s not enough,” he quipped. “I want to win as many races as possible, and we will do the count at the end of the year, to also understand where we’ll be after the first race to understand how competitive are.
“It’s very difficult to draw a picture of where we’ll stand after the first race, it will depend on that as well, but two or three is not my target, I want to win as many races as possible.
“2023 for me was no victories, I cannot wait to be back on the top step of the podium and together with Ferrari, especially. So I’m fully motivated.”
©Ferrari
While Leclerc acknowledges the difficulty of closing the gap entirely on Red Bull in 2024, he's drawing significant encouragement from Ferrari's proven ability to adapt and fight back from adversity.
The team’s mid-season resurgence last year highlighted the Scuderia’s grit and the potential to challenge for the top spot.
But the question remains: can they sustain this momentum and finally overcome Red Bull's dominance?
Only time will tell, but Ferrari's fighting spirit and Leclerc's steadfast belief suggest an exciting season ahead for the Scuderia.
“I think 2023, as much as it was a disappointing season as a whole, because we weren’t fighting for the positions we wanted to fight, I think it’s been a very good reaction from the team since the first race, when it was a disappointing result,” Leclerc noted.
“But especially the second part of the season has been really good, the momentum of the team and the directions we took and the different decisions that we took in the second half of the season were all really good and brought us to get got closer and closer, very quickly, to Red Bull.
“Our goal is definitely to start on the strong basis that we started on last year and then have the similar progression to put Red Bull under pressure as soon as possible during the season.
“To tell you whether it’s enough now to put them under pressure from the first race onwards is impossible for me to tell you.
“But one thing is sure is that we’ve worked really, really well in the second half of the year, that our directions were clearly given and now we need to see in the first race where we find ourselves.”
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
