After winning in Bahrain and a podium in Saudi Arabia, Charles Leclerc leads the drivers’ standings, and now many expect Ferrari to fight for the title. Monegasque thinks he is much better prepared for that than in 2019, when he started at Maranello.
Charles Leclerc: “In my first year at Ferrari I also thought I was ready to show what I could do. But when I look back on the past three seasons and how much I’ve learned in that time, I realize how much I’ve grown professionally. Now I am much better prepared to fight for the title. I think I’ve improved a lot as a driver.
I am happy to have won the race in Bahrain. I had a very tough battery situation so I couldn’t use the extra power to defend my position on the straight. And I didn’t want to do that to be able to use that power on the second straight and be Max Verstappen for that. It wasn’t easy to deal with this situation, but the team handled it perfectly, so I always had the option to use DRS on the second straight, which in the end helped me keep the lead. This played an important part in the rest of the race.
It seems to me that I have made progress from 2019, especially in terms of race pace. Maybe it was one of my weaknesses then: I was consistently fast in qualifying and put in a great fast lap at the decisive moment, but in the race I had a lot of problems, especially when working with rubber.
I worked hard and in 2020 I started to perform much better. In 2021 I improved again and now working with tires and controlling the course of the race are my strong points. In Bahrain I kept everything under control. Obviously there were difficult moments when Max went on the attack, but in general I controlled my pace, took care of the tires and everything went well.
Is Ferrari expected to fight for the title? I will start with those expectations. There were times in my career when I expected a lot from myself. I tried to forget them and focus on myself.
I am very happy with the start of the season. I’ve prepared well for the first races, I’m working effectively with the team – I’m in top shape. But still ahead. I know what to work with and what to improve to add speed. I don’t know if that’s enough to win the title. The season has just started, but the start is very good.”
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
