He might not have been the driver to take Ferrari's first win of the season, but Charles Leclerc was nonetheless delighted to be part of a team 1-2 for the Scuderia in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
"It's been a long time since we have had the genuine pace to have Red Bull - I wouldn't say under control, because we don't know what was the real pace of Max today," he said in the official FIA post-race press conference.
"But I will say that from FP1, we knew that pole position and the race win was possible because we had very good tyre degradation, very good pace, and that is a very encouraging sign."
While Carlos Sainz started from the front row of the grid on Sunday and took the lead when brake problems forced pole sitter Max Verstappen to retire, Leclerc had more of a challenge from P4 on the grid.
He eventually got the better of Lando Norris by using an undercut pit stop strategy, coming in early for hard tyres on lap 9 while Norris stretched his first stint to lap 14 but losing track position in the process.
Leclerc struggled with tyre management in the middle part of the race but fared better in the final run to the flag and was able to hold on to second place to the finish behind Sainz.
"We came into the weekend telling ourselves we needed to maximise our points, and there is nothing we could have done better," he said. "Second with the fastest lap, there aren't any more points that we could have got.
"That's exactly what we need to do as a team. Whenever we have the opportunity to actually win a race we need to take it, and this weekend we did it - Carlos did it today."
"Carlos has just been better this weekend, but it’s been that in the last three years," he commented. "We arrive at one race and Carlos will be better, and then I'll push and be better at the next race, and we improve like that.
"It's very exciting as a driver to have such a fast team-mate<" he added. "He's really been on it since the beginning of the weekend, so congratulations to him."I think everybody knows Carlos' worth in the paddock. He's one of the highest rated drivers in the paddock aAnd he's been extremely strong every time he was in a Formula 1 car and he's shown it multiple times."Everybody knows Carlos' worth and that's why I've said many times that I'm not too worried about his future [when he leaves Ferrari at the end of the season]. I'm sure that many, many team principals are speaking with him."
Not that this weekend's result had been a one-man effort. Indeed, Leclerc insisted that the team effort over the last few months that had led to this moment was the most rewarding aspect.
"Looking back at the first three races [of 2024] there's not one race where we didn't maximise the result," he continued. "But two out of the first three, [Red Bull] had the upper hand in the race so we still have lots of work to do.
"We need to do that until we get the car that is consistently better than the Red Bull, especially in the race."
Leclerc added that the huge amount of support for Ferrari from the Aussie fans had been overwhelming. "It's good to have such a great result on such a track and with having so much support around the track.
"We can really feel a very special support here in Melbourne, lots of Italian people, and we can feel that special support," he said. "It's been crazy the whole weekend. The fan zone was probably one of the loudest we ever had."
Team principal Frederic Vasseur was delighted by the result and praised all those involved at Maranello. "Everyone did a perfect job, and this 1-2 is the reward for the amazing work which began last season and is now ongoing.
"Of course, Carlos deserves a special mention because a little over two weeks ago he was undergoing surgery [for appendicitis] and now it’s as if that never happened
"Charles also produced a solid performance because, after a less than perfect qualifying, he had to manage the tyres, but he was able to fight back thanks to the performance he got from the car.
"He did really well in the first and last stints and the fastest race lap he picked up right at the end confirms the progress we have made in terms of tyre management.
"We have made a good step forward compared to where we were one year ago, when we left Melbourne having failed to score points," he recalled.
"We were not disappointed with our results in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, nor are we getting carried away because of this one-two finish.
"Now we must continue with this approach in the coming races because that’s the only way we are going to get the results we want."
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