Following the conclusion of the Singapore GP Free Practice, Charles Leclerc was supremely confident about Ferrari’s chances on Saturday as well as Sunday. The Monegasque driver wholeheartedly but safely applauded the work done by the team back at Maranello, as per Junaid Samodien on X [formerly Twitter]. Admittedly, this has come right after Fernando Alonso admitted that they are no match to Ferrari.
Alonso, in his latest interview after the double Free Practice sessions, said that his team is unlikely to match the pace the Prancing Horse showed on Friday. Therefore, he began to withdraw his hope of taking the 33rd race win.
Nevertheless, this has been an uplifting show from the Italian team as they look to continue their progress from Monza. Even though they just picked up a podium despite having two drivers in the top 3 starters, they will look to change this here in Singapore for sure.
Charles Leclerc applauds Ferrari but is cautious
Leclerc opened up about his team’s pace after the Free Practice session was over. They claimed P1 and P2 in both the sessions. Even though he was full of praise for the red team, he also added that they should be cautious because, in Free Practice, no teams show their true potential.
Talking about this, the 25-year-old driver said, “It was quite a good day. The car looks a bit more competitive than we had expected on a track like this, but we shouldn’t get carried away because I think that our competitors are not showing their true pace yet.”
However, if Aston Martin is not the main competitor here for Ferrari, Mercedes can very well be. After the latest admission by Lewis Hamilton on Friday, the Silver Arrows seems to be the main team to look out for the Scuderia.
Hamilton believes Mercedes can perform well in a restructured track
During Friday’s debrief, Hamilton said that this was one of the best starts to a race weekend for him and his team. As they raced in a new layout of the track, he is confident that this will help them on Saturday and Sunday.
Admittedly, Mercedes is the main Championship rival for Ferrari now. The Silver Arrows are in P2 in the Constructors’ championship with 273 points. Ferrari is right behind them in P3 with 228 points.
Admittedly, after Max Verstappen said that they needed to improve and had a difficult day out on the race weekend, things might get interesting at the Marina Bay Circuit. This is because the Singapore GP might see six cars in contention for the top spot.
