Leclerc downplays Ferrari chances of victory in Melbourne

Charles Leclerc is optimistic of seeing Ferrari edge closer to Red Bull this weekend in Melbourne, but beating the reigning world champions is a tall order insists the Scuderia charger.

Ferrari was Red Bull’s closest rival in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, but the Milton Keynes-based outfit, led by Max Verstappen who kicked off his 2024 title defense with back-to-back wins, was still comfortably ahead of the Italian outfit at both races.

Nevertheless, Ferrari’s progress since last season is undeniable, with Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz, who scored a podium each in Sakhir and in Jeddah, now entrusted with a much more friendly package compared to last year’s SF-23.

This has given rise to speculation among pundits that the Scuderia is set to give its Red Bull adversary a proper run for its money in Australia.

“I think there’ll be races this year where Max won’t win,” commented Leclerc. “Ferrari’s closest at the minute, so even this weekend, I think you might see Ferrari close and potentially ahead.”

“I mean in a better situation compared to last year, for sure. However we’re speaking about four-tenths a lap in the race which is still significant.

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“I’m more optimistic, not looking at the gap but more looking at the overall situation of the team, the way we’re working but also we have very clear ideas on what we need to improve in order to do steps forward.

“That’s what gives me the confidence that at some point during the season we’ll be there, putting them under more pressure in some tracks. That’s what gives me the confidence.

“For now the gap remains too big for us to realistically take a normal win coming race day.”

Looking ahead and assessing Ferrari’s prospects, Leclerc reckons the greater stability of the Scuderia’s SF-24 platform, especially in windy conditions, will generate better overall consistency which in turn should help its car’s in-season development and progress.

“Two years ago was a very positive weekend,” added Leclerc, harking back to his 2022 clean-sweep win Melbourne. “Last year was a much more difficult weekend.

“The characteristics of the car weren’t really going well with the characteristics of this track, however this year I think we’re going to be quite consistent in terms of our competitiveness.

“It always happens that you have a weekend where you didn’t optimise the set-up as well and then you struggle a bit more.

“I will be surprised if there are tracks where we are much better or much worse because our package is a much stronger one.

“Last year we were struggling a lot, especially with driveability and whenever there was a bit more…especially wind, we were super sensitive to wind direction and whenever we’d get a certain type of wind, we’d struggle massively. This year it’s not the case.

“So I think we’ll be more consistent but now it’s up to us to find more performance because that’s what we’re obviously missing today especially in the race compared to Red Bull.”

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