Charles Leclerc is hopeful of achieving a podium at Monza, but the Monegasque has tempered expectations regarding an outright win for Ferrari in its home race this weekend, acknowledging the performance challenges still facing the Scuderia.
Ferrari’s early season strength, marked by two victories and nine podiums in the first eight races, has dimmed in recent months.
Since the introduction of new upgrades in Spain back in June, which exacerbated the car's bouncing issues at high speeds, Ferrari has struggled to maintain its position.
Despite Leclerc’s successive top-three finishes in Spa and at Zandvoort, the Italian outfit has slipped behind McLaren in F1’s Constructors’ standings while it has also been outpaced out on the track by Mercedes.
Ferrari will unveil another round of developments this weekend in a bid to regain its early season competitiveness. But Leclerc has set realistic expectations for what the team can achieve at Monza.
“I don’t believe the last two races change our expectations,” commented the six-time Grand Prix winner.
“We are in a difficult moment for the team, we are struggling a little bit with pace at the moment.
“I think we understood quite a few things since then, but I’m not satisfied with our performance, it wasn’t quite that far from ideal.
“But on the Sunday, it was a good race, and Spa was good as well. It should be a bit more in the direction of Spa.
“So I hope we will be in the fight for the podium, but for the win, I don’t think we quite have that yet.”
©Ferrari
Ferrari has been working hard to address the limitations of its SF-24 contender. While Leclerc is confident that the upgrades will help address its car’s specific weaknesses, he doubted that Monza would be the best venue to judge the changes.
“There were very specific characteristics of the car that we had during the last race, and this is where those upgrades should help us,” he said. “Then, we will see.
“I don’t think Monza is the best track to judge those upgrades. Probably Baku or Singapore would be a bit more of a test for us, but it should go in the right direction anyway.”
Nevertheless, Leclerc is still expecting a step up in performance compared to last weekend.
“I think we are in a better position than on a higher downforce track, so it should be a bit better,” he said. “How much better, it’s still to be seen.
“So, I hope we will put everything together. We are closer than where we were in the last race.”
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