Ferrari will be the protagonist again. This is the mantra with which Charles Leclerc presented himself in Jeddah, home of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the second round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship.
The Scuderia del Cavallino Rampante has had a difficult two weeks: first the terrible opening weekend in Bahrain, where the Reds showed a huge performance gap from Red Bull. Then the farewell of the engineer David Sanchez and the many rumors about other prominent elements of GeS.
However, the team seems to have protected itself to work and prepare for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where it will try to strike a blow to react to the first, great difficulties of a more complex start to the season than expected.
Charles Leclerc, returning from a bitter withdrawal in Sakhir, underlined how the team seems united and ready to fight to make up ground from Red Bull: the World Championship will still be very long and, in his opinion, Ferrari has everything to get back into the fight with the reigning world champion team.
Charles, the start to the season has been terrible. Will Ferrari be able to do better in Jeddah?
“It is what it is, obviously. We are at the beginning of the season clearly and it is certainly not the ideal start, just as it was not in Bahrain. But what can I do about it? I have to concentrate on what to do better, what the team can do better. This weekend we’re starting off on the wrong foot, but our goal is to try to do something special. We’ll recover by returning to the top positions as quickly as possible.”
Jeddah is a lead that, at least on paper, could be in favor of SF-23…
“Here we should go a little better than 2 weeks ago. Bahrain is a track with very specific and rather unique characteristics, in some ways, I hope that the gap we saw with the Red Bulls in Sakhir is not the same here in Jeddah, but the characteristics of our car should adapt a little better to this type of track, let’s hope that’s the case. Let’s hope we get a good start and show good pace to get back in front.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Did you manage to solve the problem that forced you to retire in Sakhir or are you still worried that it might happen again?
“The problem we had in Bahrain has been understood, it shouldn’t give us any more worries.”
Do you think the 2023 season is already to be trashed or do you think Ferrari can react and get back into the fight with Red Bull?
“We are only at the beginning of the World Championship and there are so many races before the end of this season, we have to fight like crazy to get back to the top and keep pushing. I really believe we can fight this season, because we only did the first race. Of course, it didn’t go as we wanted, and when Ferrari doesn’t go as it should, then there are many rumors around the team, but we have to be positive and spend our energies wisely. We have to push in the same direction, make a difference and come back stronger. I think all of this has been the case over the last few weeks, so I can’t wait to get back on track, stop talking and get back to riding.”
Over the past two weeks there have been several rumors about Ferrari. Do you think they destabilized the environment?
“Honestly, I heard certain rumors and when I returned to Maranello I was the first and I didn’t know how the team would react. But when we had the meeting with the whole team, with all the Ferrari employees, I was really surprised. Everyone is completely still positive and motivated, and that’s great. We have to push in the same direction, as I said before. And that’s the most important thing for me.”
Is it true that you received reassurances from John Elkann?
“It is not true that I have received reassurances from John Elkann. As I said, there have been many rumors around the team and 90% of them are completely unfounded. So yes, I don’t know where they came from and, to be honest, I don’t I want to waste energy looking for where they came from. We just have to focus on ourselves.”
Did you have problems with data correlation in Bahrain? Was that the problem?
“In Bahrain there was nothing unrelated (between the track and the simulations). However, yes, in the race we struggled more than I would have liked with the balance, with the tire degradation. But, as I said, Sakhir is a pretty one-of-a-kind track.”
So were Ferrari’s difficulties at Sakhir related to set-up?
“I’m not sure if our difficulties were related to the set-up, but yes, Sakhir is a track in itself, and maybe our car wasn’t perfectly suited to the characteristics of the track.”
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