After a positive showing in the Sprint race, Charles Leclerc looks to take the fight to Max Verstappen in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. The Monegasque driver hopes to put pressure on Verstappen, who wasn’t too happy with his car, despite winning the Sprint.
Leclerc hopes to make the most of Verstappen’s discomfort with the RB20 once the lights go out for the main race. As sourced from a video clip on X, Leclerc said,
“This morning we were close, but this morning Max [Verstappen] wasn’t happy with the car. Let’s see how happy he is with the car tomorrow. I hope he’s still a little bit unhappy.”
“this morning we were close, but this morning max wasn’t happy with the car. let’s see how happy he is with the car tomorrow, i hope he’s still a little bit unhappy”
CHARLES pic.twitter.com/oimth5dHHj
— clara (fan acc) (@leclercsletters) May 4, 2024
For Leclerc and Ferrari, the Miami GP qualifying was fairly good. He starts the race just behind Verstappen in P2, and the fact that his teammate Carlos Sainz starts just behind in P3, could bode well if Ferrari decide to play the team game.
This is because Sainz could play a crucial role in holding Perez off, while Leclerc goes after Verstappen in the front.
Verstappen was not happy with the grip on the surface on his way to securing pole position for the Sprint race. Even when the first race of the weekend kicked off, the 26-year-old was clearly not at his dominant best, with Leclerc not very far behind at the end of the outing.
In five races so far this season, Verstappen has won four. The only race he failed to win was the Australian GP where a mechanical failure forced him to retire. Ferrari’s Sainz emerged victorious that afternoon in Melbourne.
This Sunday in Miami, Leclerc will be banking on Ferrari’s performance and his ability behind the wheel to help him get the better of the three-time World Champion.
Charles Leclerc hopeful of a much better outing in Miami than China
In the post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc addressed talks of Ferrari being stronger in Miami than they were in China. He feels that while there haven’t been any improvements on the car per se, the track characteristics of Miami suit them more.
However, there are still a few things the Italian team needs to figure out before they can be sure of where they stand this weekend.
The Ferrari cars struggled in the low-speed corners of China, but in Miami, the same issue hasn’t plagued their performance so far. To utilize this advantage, Ferrari is working hard to understand why this track favors them more.
Regardless, Leclerc believes that if the Ferrari cars are as fast as they were on Saturday, things could become very interesting from a racing point of view. With Verstappen remaining unhappy with the car (at least in front of the public), a perfectly executed strategy could very well determine the race winner.
