Charles Leclerc claims Ferrari is on the right track without ‘any unpleasant surprises’ in Pre-season testing

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz had an impressive outing in the SF24 during the second testing day in Bahrain. Hence, the team takes a breath of relief as the challenger matches the simulator’s data back in the factory at Maranello. Charles Leclerc asserted how the challenger didn’t put forth any challenges or major problems just yet as Ferrari looks hopeful of a better start to the 2024 season.

The Monegasque highlighted that the team was making good progress even before the commencement of the season and the SF24 was performing as expected by Maranello. Additionally, Charles Leclerc mentioned that everything was going as planned by the Italian constructor and the challenger didn’t put forth ‘unpleasant surprises’ just yet.

We're making good progress, Once again the car is doing what it needs to do, which wasn't the case at the start of last year. For the time being, everything's going according to plan, in the sense that we haven't had any unpleasant surprises in terms of the car's behaviour.

Leclerc told motorsport.com.

Apart from this. Leclerc asserted that the car was performing as expected from the simulator and called it a ‘good sign.’ However, the Monegasque driver was hesitant in commenting on the competitiveness of the challenger as he asserted that it was too soon to comment on the competitiveness of other teams on the grid.

The car is behaving as it did in the simulator, so that's a pretty good sign, the fact that it behaves exactly as it did in the simulator is good news. After that, in terms of competitiveness, it's too early to say.

Charles Leclerc admitted Max Verstappen and Red Bull still at the top

The first session of testing was led by dominant Max Verstappen, with a 1.140s lead over the runner-up. Additionally, Sergio Perez was the driver for the second session where the Mexican followed leader Sainz by a gap of just 0.7s. Hence, it is safe to assume that Milton Keynes is still superior in pace as compared to other teams on the grid.

Much like the results, Leclerc mentioned his feeling that Red Bull was still quite a bit ahead of their competitors on the grid. Regardless, the 26-year-old acknowledged the fact that this was his feeling and not a derivation from the actual data produced by the challenger. Hence, the team is still hopeful of an early-season competition with rival teams, especially Red Bull. Moreover, Red Bull Consultant Helmut Marko admitted that he was extremely impressed by the RB-20 so far.

My initial feeling is that Red Bull unfortunately remains quite a bit ahead. They have done very impressive lap times. But this is only my own feeling, not looking at data, because again data doesn’t mean much for now.

Hence, the 2024 season would be filled with excitement as the season would showcase the rival teams closing up on Milton Keynes. During the latter half of the 2023 season, multiple teams were somewhat close to replicating Red Bull’s performance. However, Verstappen will drive in a league of his own down the season and probably maximize results just like the previous season.

In case you missed it:

• “New team Principal of Red Bull, clear upgrade for Perez”- Fans come up with wild theories as Carlos Sainz Sr. meets Christian Horner and Helmut Marko at Pre-season testing
• “With us always,” Lewis Hamilton pays tribute to late F1 champion Niki Lauda on his 75th Birth Anniversary

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