Charles Leclerc asserts sporadic wins is “not enough” for Ferrari in the 2024 Formula 1 season but accepts he’ll only know what’s possible after the opening race.
Leclerc is entering his sixth season with Ferrari in F1; however, he has only five victories to show for his stint in red amid the dominance of Mercedes and now Red Bull.
The Monegasque began the latest regulation era in 2022 leading the championship, but Ferrari’s title hopes collapsed amid a litany of errors when it was most competitive.
Ferrari’s hopes of a repeat challenge were stifled from the outset last season as a troubled car concept resigned Leclerc to a winless season as team-mate Carlos Sainz cliched the only non-Red Bull victory of 2023.
The Italian marque has committed to a “revamp” with an SF-24 car that is practically new, though, as it bids to return to regular race-winning ways in the upcoming season.
But when asked whether he would accept two or three wins in 2024 as Ferrari’s rebuild continues, Leclerc admitted his personal target heading into the year is much greater.
“No, it’s not enough,” he answered when that proposal was put to him by selected media including Motorsport Week. “I want to win as many races as possible, and we will do the count at the end of the year, to also understand where we’ll be after the first race to understand how competitive are.
“It’s very difficult to draw a picture of where we’ll stand after the first race, it will depend on that as well, but two or three is not my target, I want to win as many races as possible.”
Leclerc and Max Verstappen have endured some titanic battles on track, but the contrasting fortunes of Ferrari and Red Bull meant it was seldom a sight last term.
Verstappen has capitalised on Red Bull’s crushing advantage over the past two years to rack up 34 wins from 44 races en route to becoming a three-time World Champion.
Pressed on whether Verstappen’s record-breaking success provided him with more motivation or pressure to succeed this season, Leclerc replied: “More pressure, absolutely not. More motivation, I’ve always been extremely motivated so to be more motivated is very difficult. I’m just extremely motivated and hungry for victories.
“2023 for me was no victories, I cannot wait to be back on the top step of the podium and together with Ferrari, especially.
“So I’m fully motivated. Does that make me more motivated? Not really.”
Ferrari lagged a considerable 454 points behind Red Bull in 2023, having began the campaign struggling with an SF-23 charger that proved to be dependent on conditions.
But a mid-season switch to the downwash sidepod solution reignited the Maranello-based squad and it became a challenger for pole positions across the closing rounds.
Although Leclerc concedes reeling Red Bull in will be tough, he takes encouragement from the manner in which Ferrari has responded to adversity through recent times.
“I think 2023, as much as it was a disappointing season as a whole, because we weren’t fighting for the positions we wanted to fight, I think it’s been a very good reaction from the team since the first race, when it was a disappointing result,” Leclerc contended.
“But especially the second part of the season has been really good, the momentum of the team and the directions we took and the different decisions that we took in the second half of the season were all really good and brought us to get got closer and closer, very quickly, to Red Bull.
“Our goal is definitely to start on the strong basis that we started on last year and then have the similar progression to put Red Bull under pressure as soon as possible during the season.
“To tell you whether it’s enough now to put them under pressure from the first race onwards is impossible for me to tell you. But one thing is sure is that we’ve worked really, really well in the second half of the year, that our directions were clearly given and now we need to see in the first race where we find ourselves.”
