Charles Leclerc has expressed that Ferrari’s struggles over recent months have made the team even more “motivated” to return to contesting Formula 1 wins in 2024.
Ferrari began the season as Red Bull’s main contender with a revamped SF-24 car which eradicated the wind-sensitive issues that blighted its capricious predecessor.
But having seized two victories and nine podiums in eight rounds, Ferrari has since added two top-three results in the previous six races and dropped behind McLaren.
The Italian marque’s accelerated upgrades to Spain triggered bouncing in high-speed corners, costing the squad up to “three months” in development versus its rivals.
Leclerc, who took his maiden win on home soil in Monaco and lies third in the standings, has admitted that Ferrari’s campaign can be divided into complete contrasts.
“We’ve had during this first part of the season, it’s been separated in two phases,” he assessed.
“The first one was really positive; think we have maximised completely the potential of our car and probably even overperformed sometimes in some weekends, which was great.
“And the second part where once we added the new parts, we struggled a little bit more with the bouncing especially, which puts us in an uncomfortable situation where we had to experience a bit more in terms of set-up and we paid the price very quickly in terms of results and points. So yeah, that’s where we’ve been struggling in the last few races.”
Leclerc revealed last month that his uncompetitive weekends in Austria and Britain emanated from conducting experiments in a bid to help Ferrari cure its problems.
But having pursued outright competitiveness in the last two races and still lagged behind its competitors, Leclerc has conceded that Ferrari has to unlock more pace.
“We went through tough moments with the team, we went through better moments with the team,” Leclerc, who went into the break with a third place in Belgium, said.
“At the moment, obviously looking at the last four or five races, we are in a moment where we have struggled more.
“Apart from the last race [Hungary, where Leclerc finished fourth], which I consider quite a good one, where we maximised our potential.
“Then, of course, we know that we have to improve our potential because for now it’s just not good enough.”
Nevertheless, the Monegasque is adamant that the morale inside the Maranello-based squad has not deteriorated as the side bids to return to its earlier-season form.
“But we are on it and that doesn’t demotivate us,” he continued.
“If anything, it motivates us even more to come back to a good level of performance and to see again the winning trophy.
“So yeah, there’s a big motivation in the team and I hope that this struggling moment will be the most short possible.”
However, Leclerc has cautioned that the ongoing summer break will not provide the chance to reverse Ferrari’s prospects as the shutdown prohibits work on the cars.
“I don’t think the shutdown will help us because everything is closed so it will all be about holidays and recharging the batteries,” he explained.
“However, as soon as possible we’ll try to work on the new parts that again I cannot tell you when it will be coming and it’s not even sure when it will be coming.
“We are working flat out to try and bring it as early as possible and then depending on when it comes it will tell us which races will start to see the lights at the end of this tunnel.”
