Leclerc confident Ferrari won’t suffer Monaco-like post-win drop

After securing his second victory of the season at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is confident the Italian outfit won’t endure a difficult post-win period as it experienced after its Monaco triumph.

Leclerc's banner win in Ferrari’s home race marked the Scuderia’s third consecutive podium finish, a sign that the team has made significant strides in addressing the issues that plagued them earlier in the summer.

However, while the team has shown significant improvement, Leclerc highlighted the importance of his team keeping a clear win after its unexpected home race feat.

“As a team, it’s really important for us that once we come back at the factory tomorrow, we reset from everything that has happened during the weekend,” he said on Sunday.

“We learn from it and we try to analyse everything, but we should leave emotions aside and reset as a team and go again in Baku, not having crazy high expectations because that’s not where the team is at the moment.

“I repeat myself, but Monza is a very specific track. We have been very strong this weekend, but Baku will be maybe very different and Singapore again very different. So we’ve got to reset.”

• Read also: “It’s an incredible feeling", says Leclerc of Italian GP win

Ferrari’s upgrade last June at the Spanish Grand Prix delivered positive data in terms of downforce but it also triggered the return of chronic porpoising at high speed, which canceled out the aero benefits of the package.

The team has since managed to iron out most of its car’s bouncing trait as its recent results have shown. But Leclerc cautioned against assuming that Ferrari are on track to leading the field.

“We did a reset from Monaco to Montreal, but as we’ve seen from Monaco to Montreal, it was a really big change from one weekend to another,” he said.

“And then we went through three or four of the worst races of the season, just because we were trying to understand what was going on in our car.

“So hopefully we don’t go through three or four very difficult races from now on. I don’t think it will be the case.”

The Monegasque stressed that the team and its fans should temper their expectations and avoid unrealistic hopes based on a single race result.

“Again, it’s very important that not only the team, but I think also the expectations from outside don’t become crazy high from one race to another because this is not realistic.

“Have we done a step forward? Yes. Is it enough to go and win races until the end of the season? I don’t think so yet, but we did a good step in the right direction.”

Looking ahead, Leclerc is uncertain where Ferrari might slot in amongst its rivals in the array of venues that awaits the team.

“Before this race I don’t think I was seeing myself challenging for wins anywhere else,” he said.

“Singapore maybe could be a strong track for us. On the other tracks I still feel like we are a step behind McLaren and Red Bull. But today we’ve seen that we can be very on a par with McLaren if we do everything perfect.

“I think that the upgrade has helped us in some ways today to have the same pace as them.

“However, for the other tracks, I don’t know whether it will be enough to completely close the gap, especially the gap we’ve seen in the previous races, not here.

“So we’ve got to wait and see, but we’ve done some step forward. I think we need some others.”

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