Charles Leclerc is optimistic that the Ferrari Formula 1 team can deliver a “significant step” when it introduces upgrades onto its SF-24.
Ferrari has had an encouraging start to the campaign, emerging as the second-fastest team overall, and picked up a victory courtesy of Carlos Sainz in Australia.
Leclerc scored his third podium of the season in Miami, trailing behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, though both were trumped by McLaren’s Lando Norris, on a weekend at which McLaren introduced a substantial upgrade package.
Ferrari is set to introduce a large raft of updates though has yet to specify when the updated components will be ready.
“If we compare ourselves to Max this weekend, it’s been a positive weekend,” said Leclerc.
“However, we cannot completely ignore Lando. And Lando in SQ2, I remember he did a lap where I was like, ‘OK, they are extremely quick’. Then for some reason, and as Lando said, I think they weren’t as special on Saturday for some reason. But [in the race] they were really, really strong.
“As I’ve said many times, I think the season will be up to upgrades. We have ours coming very soon and that will define a little bit the rest of the season for us. So we’ve got to work hard and hopefully those upgrades will be as good as theirs and will help us to do a significant step forward.”
Leclerc started from the front row of the grid before being passed by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri; having undercut the Australian he was then usurped by Norris through the pit stop phase.
“Fortunately for everybody, we all got out that first corner without any damage,” said Leclerc.
“Then it was all about trying to focus on ourselves, but we’re again missing a little bit of pace. But we did our best.
“Obviously, we have been unlucky with the Safety Car. The timing of the Safety Car wasn’t great for us. Then we ended up having the oldest tyres of all the guys at the front. But we managed everything quite well. So P3 was the best we could do, and we should be satisfied with that.”
