Leclerc says Ferrari must recover from downward spiral and development mistakes
After a hugely encouraging start to the season, Ferrari are on the defensive. The upgrades introduced in Spain have derailed the team’s progress, exposing an oversight in the Maranello factory’s calculations. Ferrari are now working to correct this error. However, as Charles Leclerc explains, these revisions come at a price.
The Italian outfit aimed to generate more downforce with their latest upgrade package. At the time, Ferrari were still second in the Championship and within striking distance of Red Bull.
Unfortunately for Fred Vasseur’s team, they have been hampered by bouncing since introducing these updates.
This impacts their current performance while raising questions about the upgrades already in the pipeline.
Ferrari has been forced to retrace their steps to prevent bouncing from becoming a recurring problem.
Ferrari strive for error-free weekends
Charles Leclerc is optimistic the team can put themselves on the right track:
“During this first part of the season, it’s been separated in two phases. The first one was really positive, where I think we have maximised completely the potential of the car.
“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 put us in an uncomfortable situation where we had to experiment a bit more in terms of set-up.
“And we paid the price very quickly, in terms of results and points.
“That’s where we’ve been struggling the last few races. Budapest was more of a clean weekend on that side, and that paid off – for race pace especially.
“Now, I hope we can continue on that path.”
The Belgian GP could be tricky for the Ferrari SF-24, especially given the upgrades Mercedes are bringing.
Even in their stronger patch at the beginning of 2024, Ferrari struggled somewhat in cooler conditions.
Therefore, despite their recent issues, the Spa Francorchamps circuit is not well-suited to the Maranello-based squad.
Because of this, as Leclerc outlines, the priority over the next few days will be to avoid unforced errors.
As McLaren and Red Bull have shown in recent weeks, several variables go into the equation of success in F1.
This is especially true in mixed conditions when rain throws a spanner in the works.
With this knowledge, Ferrari can secure good points in Belgium by avoiding errors and putting themselves in a position to pick up the pieces.
