Charles Leclerc is hopeful that the Ferrari Formula 1 team has gone on top of the extreme brake problem that cost him throughout last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Leclerc had qualified second for the season-opening race but his hopes of challenging the Red Bulls were thwarted when he experienced substantial braking trouble.
The Monegasque combated a “100-degree split” on the front brake temperatures of his car, which is estimated to have cost him six-tenths per lap in the opening stages.
Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz, who took third in Bahrain, admitted that he had also had to nurse an issue with the brakes getting too hot at certain points in the race.
But speaking ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Leclerc clarified that his individual issue “wasn’t down to overheating” and was one Ferrari hadn’t encountered before.
“It was just an issue that we’ve never had before, and that was obviously very costly in terms of time, especially in the first half of the race, where it was extremely difficult to drive,” he reflected. “But no, I don’t expect it to happen again this weekend.”
Asked whether he had endured such problems in pre-season testing the previous week at the same venue, Leclerc replied: “No, there are always fine-tunings that you have to do, which we did. But no, we didn’t have any issues like I’ve had on the race.”
Despite his prospects in the race having been hampered, Leclerc admits Ferrari’s competitiveness aligned with that the team had anticipated with its 2024 machine.
“It was kind of what we expected more or less, maybe a little bit better, but we need to wait and see,” he said regarding the conclusions Ferrari could take from Bahrain.
“I think drawing conclusions after the first race is a bit too early.
“One thing for sure is that our focus is on the brake problems we had in the race. We’ve been working on it and I hope we can solve them.”
Although Leclerc thought second was possible in the first race, he concedes that the Red Bull RB20 in the hands of Max Verstappen remains unbeatable at this moment.
However, having revamped its car concept from its predecessor, the five-time grand prix winner is optimistic that Ferrari is “in a much better place compared to last year.
“Where after the first race we were more trying to fix the issues rather than focusing on the future and the next upgrades. Whereas this year the car is in a much better place,” he explained.
“In a place that we expected it to be. So now we can focus on the future upgrades. So that is looking better. However, for now, Max is still too far ahead.”
Leclerc is relishing the chance to sample Ferrari’s overhauled SF-24 car on more certain configurations as it bids to collect more data to reduce the deficit to Red Bull.
“I’m just focusing on our own performance,” he highlighted. “We’ve got plenty of things to deal with at the moment inside the team.
“As I was saying earlier, the future development is very clear. What are the areas we need to work on, on our car. So, we are really focusing on that.
“But we are in a positive moment for the team after the good momentum that we’ve had in the second part of last year to this year where we’ve had a pretty good winter, where we’ve hit all our targets that we had given us and the car is again doing exactly what we wanted.
“So, now we are just excited to be back out on track to get some other data to bring the upgrades as quickly as possible and to hopefully put Max under a bit more pressure than now.”
Leclerc believes that Ferrari’s impressive track record at the Bahrain International Circuit means the Italian marque has to wait to assess its areas for improvement.
“I don’t think this is our main strength,” referencing Ferrari’s apparent strength in high-speed turns. ” I felt like it was more the medium speed where we were strong.
“And I think also historically we have always been quite strong in Bahrain.
“SoI would prefer to wait a few more races to judge what our weaknesses, our strong points are, as it’s probably too early to say for now.”
