Charles Leclerc reveals Ferrari’s Miami GP upgrades not enough to catch the dominant Red Bulls

Charles Leclerc seemed confident after a rather decent weekend at the Azerbaijan GP.

Charles Leclerc reveals Ferrari’s Miami GP upgrades not enough to catch the dominant Red Bulls

Charles Leclerc

Scuderia Ferrari has been playing catch-up with Red Bull in the 2023 F1 season. The Italian team fell behind the reigning world champions over the winter and had an underwhelming start to the year. However, Charles Leclerc got pole position for the sprint and the GP in Baku. The Monegasque driver is confident that the new upgrade package would further help the Scuderia in Miami.

The 25-year-old reckoned that the development is on the right track for the SF23. However, Leclerc clarified that the latest set of upgrades wouldn’t shake up the pecking order drastically. He said, “It should go in the right direction. I don’t think it will be enough to fight with them, but it will go in the right direction, I’m sure.” 

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Charles was relieved to have a successful weekend in Azerbaijan after the woeful start to the first three races that included 2 DNFs, along with an incident with Lance Stroll. He explained, “It was good. After the first three races, it was really bad. Obviously, we were really unlucky in Bahrain being in third and having that technical issue, already a penalty for the second race, and then the DNF with the incident with Lance [Stroll] in Australia.”

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The Monegasque driver felt that no result could’ve made his season worse after the three rounds, although the Baku weekend did go well for the 25-year-old. Charles Leclerc continued, “So, it couldn’t be worse. But, in Azerbaijan, it went really well.”

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“Red Bull is just too strong for now,” Charles Leclerc

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Charles got his first podium of 2023 at the Azerbaijan GP

Leclerc was glad to see that the Italian team had the potential to beat the Red Bulls during qualifying. Yet, the Scuderia continues to struggle against Christian Horner’s team regarding the race pace. He stated, “We had our first pole, which is great. I think it confirms how strong our car is – especially in qualifying. But then in the race it confirms our weaknesses a little bit.”

The Ferrari driver admitted that there still needs to be some progress made in Maranello to close up with the current favorites. Charles concluded, “We still need to work on our race pace, as the Red Bull is just too strong for now.” Team Principal Fred Vasseur mentioned that Ferrari will bring further upgrades at the upcoming Emilia Romagna and Spanish GPs.

Thus, Charles Leclerc acknowledges that the Scuderia is on the right path in its development plan in an effort to match Red Bull. However, the team is far from where it wants to be so far, with bigger upgrades in the pipeline. The Monegasque driver seems to be convinced with Vasseur’s plan for the 2023 season that can potentially keep the 25-year-old at Maranello for the long term.

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