{"id":23699,"date":"2024-08-29T22:23:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T02:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=23699"},"modified":"2024-08-30T09:48:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T13:48:33","slug":"__trashed-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/29\/__trashed-52\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc insists Ferrari in &#8220;difficult moment&#8221; despite upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Leclerc produced a top-quality drive to finish on the podium <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/24\/ferrari-struggle-in-zandvoort-practice-as-concerns-grow\/\" target=\"_self\">last week in Zandvoort<\/a>. However, the 26-year-old insists that Ferrari still have obstacles to overcome if they are to win races. Even with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/27\/ferrari-upgrades-define-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari&#8217;s latest upgrade package<\/a>, Leclerc believes the team are in a tough position.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Charles Leclerc warns of ongoing Ferrari struggles<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h4>Ferrari work to reverse their decline<\/h4>\n<p>Little more than three months ago, Ferrari were established as Red Bull&#8217;s closest rivals.<\/p>\n<p>When Leclerc finally took victory on home soil in Monaco, there was tremendous optimism surrounding the team.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Ferrari, this success was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/02\/ferrari-prepare-season-defining-corrective-upgrades\/\" target=\"_self\">followed by a sharp decline<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s troubles began in Canada with poor set-up choice, before updates in Spain put the SF-24 outside of its ideal performance window.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"aLRRB1cUQ650v6VJXseAoQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2169254988\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'aLRRB1cUQ650v6VJXseAoQ',sig:'UfqbIK1CP9Oymd3GV3sG2qS5Z_RotlQ7K_0vljZBamQ=',w:'594px',h:'383px',items:'2169254988',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/26\/fred-vasseur-ferrari-are-fighting-for-the-championship\/\" target=\"_self\">Fred Vasseur<\/a> is still upbeat, especially in regard to the update package arriving this weekend.<\/p>\n<h4>Leclerc manages expectations<\/h4>\n<p>Despite this, Charles Leclerc believes fighting for wins is still beyond the team:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I don&#8217;t let the last two races change our expectations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We are in a difficult moment for the team. We are struggling a little bit with pace at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I think we understood quite a few things since Zandvoort, especially on what happened on Saturday, where our performance was quite far from ideal. But on the Sunday, it was a good race.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In Spa, it was good as well.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Here, it should be a bit more in the direction of Spa, so hopefully, we&#8217;ll be a bit more in the fight for the podium.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;However, for the win &#8211; I don&#8217;t think we quite have that yet.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"TLJALjtWRb9rbxZBnwwTxg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2168243051\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'TLJALjtWRb9rbxZBnwwTxg',sig:'I5exg-9eyMIRIEPeksT8ueTpFHIeVRK_tVoyovp8mYc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2168243051',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Of course, it is natural for drivers and teams to manage expectations.<\/p>\n<p>This is certainly common practice at Ferrari, particularly as they try to alleviate the pressure of a home race.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that Charles Leclerc does not have genuine concerns. Ferrari have lost their footing in the development race, and regaining it will be no easy feat.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Ferrari are successful with their updates, this does not guarantee they will erase the deficit to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/29\/mclaren-having-a-number-1-driver-is-not-healthy\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Ferrari should not be written off. With such fine margins separating the top four teams, it only takes a moderate step forward to change the pecking order at the front.<\/p>\n<p>Considering the dramatic <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/06\/fred-vasseur-next-races-will-be-much-better-for-ferrari\/\" target=\"_self\">changes being brought to the SF-24<\/a>, there is undoubtedly potential for substantial progress.<\/p>\n<p>With clear skies forecast in Monza this weekend, the Scuderia will have plenty of dry running to collect data and analyse their package.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Leclerc produced a top-quality drive to finish on the podium last week in Zandvoort. However, the 26-year-old insists that Ferrari still have obstacles to overcome if they are to win races. Even with Ferrari&#8217;s latest upgrade package, Leclerc believes the team are in a tough position. Charles Leclerc warns of ongoing Ferrari struggles Ferrari [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,3],"tags":[2220,445,68,465,84,2250],"class_list":["post-23699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-ferrari","tag-sf-24"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}