Formula 1, Leclerc: “I know what I have to do to be faster”

After the victory in Bahrain and the border fight with the winner in Saudi Arabia, Max Ferstappen, Charles Leclerc said that there are several areas and points where he can improve in order to “unlock” even more speed of the Ferrari F1-75 – and he knows that they are.

After those first two games of 2022, the Monegasque is top of the F1 Championship for the first time in his career, with a 12-point difference over his Maranello counterpart Carlos Saint and 20 points over Max Ferstappen – due to not having the Dutch in Bahrain.

And although Ferrari seems in his hands to be the top car, at every track and in every type of condition and temperature, Leclerc says the Italian car still has more potential to surface.

“I’m definitely looking forward to the start of the year. I’m working well with the team and the preparation for the first few games has been very good, so overall I’m feeling good.”said Leclerc. “But there is still a lot ahead of us. What makes me happiest isn’t so much the performance as the fact that I know exactly what areas to work on and what to improve to unlock more speed.

Whether that’s enough for the championship title, I have no idea. We’re still very early in the year, but let’s say we’re off to a very good start. As I have said many times, I am thinking of evolution [των μονοθεσίων] will be key and the drivers have to help the team as much as they can to maintain that level of performance”, concluded the 24-year-old.

Meanwhile, in his internal competition with Carlos Sainte for the Scuderia’s ‘anointing’ in capturing this year’s F1 title, Leclerc appears to be gaining a first and major ‘upper hand’ by beating the Spaniard by state in the first two races of this year – at the time Saint states that he has yet to fully scale the F1-75 to his measurements.

Matthias Binotto had recently said that the team’s “anointing” would be given to whoever beats them on the track, but had shown a clear bias towards Leclerc in his previous statements. “After the first two GPs this year, when asked if the Monegasque was capable of taking the title, the Italian responded.”I think so”.

And he continued: “But that’s what I expected when we extended his contract to 2024 last year because we know what he’s capable of. I think it just proves he’s capable of winning the championship. “There is no doubt that he has the talent and ability, he is very good in frontal combat on the track and I am very happy with what he has shown in these two races.”