Leclerc: “Silverstone reveals Ferrari’s weaknesses”

A year ago Ferrari emerged victorious from Silverstone with Carlos Sainz’s first – and so far only – victory in Formula One, but things are not looking so optimistic for the Maranello team at this year’s British GP.

Red Bull kicked off Max Verstappen’s first year on his way to a tenth straight win in as many Formula One races this season as Charles Leclerc claimed that the Silverstone circuit will expose all of this season’s weaknesses. Ferrari SF-23.

“I think after Barcelona we feel like we’re going in the right direction,” said the Monegasque Scuderia driver, “Since then we haven’t been able to prove that on any of the other tracks. But in Austria our pace was good and our speed was better than in the first races of the season. So that was good. I think you can tell that we’ve made a few steps forward.

And speaking specifically about what he expects from Ferrari on the English circuit, he continued: “However, we should not get carried away. I mean, Red Bull is still very far ahead. And I think this track will reveal our weaknesses a bit. So maybe we’ll try a little harder compared to what we saw last year.” . But the driving feel and the base (of the car) are better now and that’s clear.”

Scuderia director Fred Wasser agrees with Leclerc’s opinion on Silverstone: “I don’t want to go into details but on paper Austria is (for us) a better track than Silverstone. But now, in more difficult circumstances, we have to do our best.” stressed the Frenchman.

tire management

At the same time, Vasser also confirmed the Ferrari SF-23’s sense of improvement, saying in particular that the team had finally managed to make the Cavallino race-competitive by solving the highly problematic – earlier this year – management of each tire type.

“When you’re improving, you always want to get validation. In Spielberg we managed for the first time to be more competitive in the race than in the qualifying tests. It’s hard to compare with Max Verstappen, but yes with the others.”closed water.

However, advances in tire management can also be attributed to the commitment of the drivers – as Leclerc admitted: “I’m sure that every time I’ve worked on something in my career, I’ve progressed, and pretty quickly. At the moment this (the tyres) is the area I focus on the most.”

I do everything I can as a driver to keep the tires in the correct (thermal) operating window at all times. That’s probably the parameter that’s higher than everyone else, so we’ve worked a lot on it and I’m optimistic that we’ve made a step forward.” concluded the 25-year-old.