Charles Leclerc says the update in Japan certainly helped his driving style, which Frederic Vasseur expands more on and agrees upon.
It was an up and down season for Ferrari’s Leclerc in F1 2023. There were moments where his form dipped against teammate Carlos Sainz, but the Monegasque came alive towards the end of the year especially post the updates brought about in Japan.
Even though there were couple of races where he had a DSQ and DNS, Leclerc looked racey in the grands prix and even fought for race lead. The Monegasque does pin points towards the updates that Ferrari brought in Japan which helped him.
“Having second or third fastest car, depended on where we were racing,” said Leclerc. “It’s so much up and down. We’ve got races where we were definitely the second fastest cars, other races where maybe we were the fourth or fifth fastest car, so it was really up and down.
“But I believe that since Japan, when we brought an upgrade to the car, it went in the right direction, especially for my driving style. I always like to have a strong front and I felt much more at ease and could be much more consistent. So yeah, that’s a positive,” summed up Leclerc, while noting about what changed to help him.
Ferrari chief Vasseur concurs with Leclerc that the update actually helped him to surge ahead and register good results to be close in the fight for fourth in the standings. “It is a good analysis that we had a small upgrade in Japan and I don’t know if it was a, in terms of pure performance, if it was something bigger, but in terms of comfort it was important and very beneficial for Charles,” he said.
“But sometimes it is a matter of details. After Japan you have tracks that you like and you are doing a better job. At the end of the day we are speaking about tenths of seconds, and from one weekend to the other we have to accept that they are sportsmen. Federer can win one day in Wimbledon and lose the next.
“So I am taking them always as sportsman, up and down, but what is true in our business today is that if you have a look at five years ago Mercedes guys could miss one corner and still be on pole position. This is true for everybody except Max probably, but it is true for Checo and it means that we don’t have to drawn too big a conclusion after one change or something like this.
“I think Charles was in a much better shape in the last part of the season, the last six or seven races. He did five or six poles out of the last nine and this was a positive dynamic. I think we did a step a bit later on the consistency and the face that we improved the car a little bit. That way we were able to be more consistent or have to push less in the race.
“I am please about the last two events because it was two completely opposite pictures. Vegas, very high speed, very cold conditions. Abu Dhabi a lot of mid-speed corners and very hot conditions. In each situation we were there. Red Bull is still faster than us and we still have room to improve and at least compared to Zandvoort and to some other events that we did a big step forward,” summed up Vasseur.
Here’s Charles Leclerc winning Overtake of the Year
Here’s Mercedes, Ferrari on losing out in Bahrain testing itself
Here’s Charles Leclerc being disappointed by 2023
Here’s Frederic Vasseur on wanting to put pressure on Max Verstappen
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