Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc explains his Formula 1 team’s strategy in the final sprint of the 2023 season in the two-way battle with McLaren in the Constructors’ World Championship
80 points separate Ferrari and McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of the four race weekends still to come in the 2023 Formula One season. But no one at Ferrari is currently worried that McLaren could still move up to P3. “The gap is big,” says Charles Leclerc, for example.
The Ferrari driver is not entirely convinced, however, considering recent races. “Given McLaren’s form, nothing is impossible. McLaren can definitely still catch us.”
So what can Ferrari do about it? Leclerc says, “We have to focus on ourselves. We gain nothing by looking too much at McLaren. We just have to try to finish the season in the best possible way. “
Since the summer break, Leclerc has been getting into better shape
However, the second half of the season since the summer break has given him fresh encouragement. Ferrari has “learned a lot” since then, says Leclerc, “which gives me a lot of confidence for next year’s car. But until the end of the season, we have to get by with the current car and make the best of it. The big steps will then come next year.”
He said he himself has made “small progress” recently with adjustments to the set-up. “It’s not just a question of how comfortable I feel in the car. It’s also a question of overall competitiveness and where we stand compared to our main opponents,” explains Leclerc. “Our work in the second half of the season underlines that we’re really going in the right direction there. “
Will Mexico be difficult again for Ferrari?
What this means in the short term for the 2023 Mexico Grand Prix this weekend, Leclerc is asked. That’s because Ferrari has sometimes had considerable technical difficulties in previous years due to the altitude, and the team’s turbochargers in particular have been prone to failure.
Leclerc speaks of a “quite difficult race” last year and admits to “many problems with our package,” explicitly naming the powertrain. “But we don’t expect to have the same problems this year,” he says. “We hope we’ve made progress. After all, it’s a very different package this year. It should go better. “
A residual risk remains, however; after all, you can’t control everything, Leclerc says: “In the race, you certainly have to take care of [components] whenever you’re driving in traffic. But hopefully we’ll never get into traffic at all, but start from pole position. That’s pretty unlikely, though.”
“So the race should be difficult. But we feel much better prepared than last year.”
