Charles Leclerc: The team is doing great right now

In Austria, Charles Leclerc achieved Ferrari’s best result of the season, finishing second, and summed up the weekend at the FIA ​​press conference.

Q: Charles, well done, your first podium since Baku. You are happy?
Charles Leclerc: It’s nice to be back on the podium, especially after a difficult Saturday. I liked how the car behaved on Friday. With the latest innovations I feel better. We waited for the race to confirm these feelings. And everything worked out.

We have to work hard to overtake the Red Bull – they are much faster on race day, but the feel of the car has improved. And the team is working in a way I’ve never seen before, introducing new products much faster than planned. And it’s great!

Q: On Friday you said you want to wait for the race to review the new products. Did they help improve the handling of the tyres?
Charles Leclerc: Overall the car behaved much more stable in the race. But sprint weekends are unpredictable because you don’t have much time to get your car ready. Maybe I made a little mistake with the settings. The balance was shifted back, the rear tires were wearing quickly, so I had to change the style of driving. I think with the optimal settings the car will be even faster.

Q: Can you confirm this speed on Silverstone?
Charles LeclercA: That’s the goal. Silverstone has a completely different track. It is very interesting to understand how our custom car will behave there. Our weak point is fast corners, which are many in Silverstone. Let’s see how it goes there.

Question During the race, the team suggested switching to a three pit stop strategy. Why did you refuse? And what tires were you going to put on the third segment?
Charles Leclerc: I declined because it was clearly not a race with three pit stops for me. At least it didn’t seem that way to me. I don’t know what the plan was for the tyres. We didn’t talk about it before the start. I said “no” because this decision didn’t seem right to me.

Question: Now you are 157 points behind Max in the individual standings, effectively forfeiting your chances in the title fight. How do you stay motivated?
Charles Leclerc: I’m always motivated, especially after weekends like this, when you feel the car is capable of more.

Yes, it will be difficult to win the title this year, but we have a lot of work to do. I see how high the motivation is in the team, how hard everyone works at the base so that new items appear as quickly as possible. It adds confidence and motivation.

I’m already looking forward to Silverstone. This is a completely different circuit, but the team has done a great job preparing for this stage. We all want to return to victories as soon as possible – and we’re working on it.