Charles Leclerc has recently provided a detailed outlook about his struggles at Ferrari this season in an interview with the-race.com. While the Monegasque has repeatedly explained how he has struggled to manage the rear of his Ferrari, he believes that he just needs to blame himself for the same.
As per the-race.com, the 25-year-old pushed “very hard to have the strong front end” at the start of the season. However, Leclerc believes that the Ferrari car has been incompatible to fit his desires. As a result of the same, he has consistently lost ground this season to Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz.
P4 in today’s race 🇯🇵 Not much we could have done better, we maximised our potential which is what we need to do in weekends where the pace is a bit less good.
A big congrats to Red Bull for the Constructor’s Championship ! pic.twitter.com/opPJWBC2Ss— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) September 24, 2023
As things stand, the Monegasque is currently sixth in the championship with 135 points, 15 points behind the Spaniard. Even though Leclerc has not been at par with Sainz this season, the 25-year-old is keen to work as hard as he can to learn how best to drive the SF-23.
Charles Leclerc explains his struggles with the SF-23
In a recent interview with the-race.com, Charles Leclerc explained the struggles he has been having with the SF-23. The Monegasque believes that since the SF-23 requires understeer, something that is his weakness, he has not been able to perform at his best.
“I had to do some work to try and fit my driving a bit better to an understeery car which is not my biggest strength, and I know it. I tried to go a bit more in my direction with the car set-up as much as it could be done, which was not a lot for this year, but at the same time, try to adapt my driving to these more understeery set-ups that we need at the moment,” he explained.
The former Sauber driver then added how he has just been going through a lot of data and videos to understand where he has been making mistakes this season. He then also added that even though the car is not suited to his strengths, he hates to find excuses.
“It’s something that I hate to find excuses for, in a way. In the end, I am the driver. I am the one setting up the car. And this was my choice to have such a strong front at the beginning of the season when maybe the car couldn’t handle it because it was inconsistent,” explained the 25-year-old. With Leclerc not having enjoyed the best of campaigns at Ferrari this season, he now hopes that the team can learn from their mistakes and improve upon the 2024 car.
Leclerc explains how the 2024 car will be different
While speaking in the build-up to the Singapore Grand Prix last month (as quoted by Sky Sports), Charles Leclerc was the first individual from Ferrari to reveal that the team is considering changing the concept of the 2024 car. The Monegasque believes that the team has had some good learnings this season which they could use to produce a quick car next year.
While Ferrari’s desire is to close the huge gap to Red Bull next season, they still do have a huge fight on their hands in the remainder of this season for second place in the Constructors’ Championship. With just six races remaining in the 2023 season, the Prancing Horse find themselves 20 points behind second-placed Mercedes.
