Charles Leclerc says overall F1 2023 was a disappointing season after Ferrari couldn’t go after Red Bull, even though there has been progress.
After ending up second to Red Bull in 2022 F1 season, Ferrari had some hopes to catch them in 2023 but already in pre-season testing, this looked unlikely to happen. The real fight for them was against Mercedes mostly amid other surprises.
Aston Martin were first up, while McLaren joined the party later with Red Bull happily ahead in the game especially Max Verstappen. And Leclerc concedes F1 2023 to be disappointing overall even though he felt the team has made progress better than they did in 2022.
“Maybe last race [can be my highlight], but yeah, to be honest [overall] it’s been a disappointing season,” said Leclerc to media. “After last year, we expected to come to this season and try and fight for the championship which after the first race, we straightaway understood how difficult it will be compared to the Red Bull that had done a huge step forward, especially in race pace.
“We didn’t do the same step. So from that moment onwards, it was a bit disappointing. On the other hand, if you just look at this season – forget about last season – I think we’ve progressed quite a lot throughout the season which is positive and makes me confident for the future.
“But there’s a big gap to fill to get back the Red Bulls so we’ll work hard during the winter break and hopefully we’ll come back stronger next year with a car that is capable of winning,” summed up Leclerc.
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