Essentially the most troublesome second in Ferrari’s 2024 marketing campaign additionally confirmed how a lot they’ve progressed beneath staff principal Frederic Vasseur, driver Charles Leclerc believes.
“We’ve improved so much and I believe that has made the distinction in recovering faster every time we get in these moments which are a bit tougher to handle,” he mentioned in response to a query from RaceFans when talking to media on Wednesday.
Whereas a lot consideration has been centered on the arrival of megastar signing Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc is heading into his seventh season within the distinctive stress cooker surroundings of Ferrari. He has by no means hidden his admiration for the calming affect Vasseur introduced since he arrived on the staff two years in the past, and Leclerc says Ferrari is now in higher form than he ever knew it beneath predecessor Mattia Binotto.
“I’m assured to say that it’s been the most effective staff mentality that I’ve seen since I’ve been right here,” he informed media together with RaceFans this week.
Nonetheless Leclerc is aware of higher than to construct expectations too excessive. “I bear in mind 2019 was my first day in Ferrari and I received there and I used to be so assured after the check as a result of it went nicely after which I used to be so disillusioned after the primary race that I promised myself to not have any expectations going ahead. So I don’t actually have any expectations.
“However as a matter of reality, the mentality and the place we’re as a staff is in a extremely good place in the mean time. And of that, I’m very glad.”
“Competitiveness could be very troublesome to evaluate as a result of I don’t know what McLaren or Pink Bull may need discovered of their growth progress, or Mercedes as nicely. So on that, we have to wait a bit bit extra. However mentality-wise and the best way we work is at an excellent stage and on that I’m very glad.”
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Hamilton will not be the one current main signing to reach at Ferrari from Mercedes. Vasseur additionally lured Jerome D’Ambrosio to function his deputy, whereas Loic Serra will head up work on the chassis as technical director. Leclerc says each convey the identical calming affect which he sees as a basic Vasseur trait.
“What I actually like about them is that they’re similar to Fred in the best way they course of feelings, which is an effective factor,” he mentioned. “You converse to Fred, you converse to Jerome, you converse to Loic and also you get the identical feeling.
“That’s an excellent factor as a result of it’s a giant staff so not all people speaks with Fred and never all people speaks with Jerome, not all people speaks to Loic. However all three collectively converse with lots of people inside Ferrari and to have the identical vibe and the identical feeling out of Loic, Jerome and Fred is a vital factor.
“They handle feelings very, very nicely, and in a staff like Ferrari the place feelings can run extraordinarily excessive, I’ve at all times mentioned it’s an incredible factor.”
Ferrari was not the one staff which encountered issues with its automotive growth final yr – Pink Bull, Mercedes and most groups hit hassle at occasions. However Leclerc says the calmness Vasseur has instilled means they reply extra successfully to setbacks.
That is significantly necessary as chasing lap time with the present era of floor impact automobiles has turn out to be more and more troublesome, as Leclerc defined.
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“I believe that it’s embedded on this new regulation of automobiles,” he mentioned. “We clearly are inclined to drive these automobiles very, very low to the bottom, which we’re touching so much. And everytime you contact [the ground]… it’s very, very troublesome to breed the bottoming in wind tunnel or CFD. In order that makes it significantly troublesome for this era of automobiles.
“That creates a number of the issues that generally you see groups that didn’t anticipate any of what’s taking place on-track to occur. Perhaps there are methods to foretell it in a greater means, we’ve labored on these methods as a lot as doable, however clearly every time this occurs it’s as a result of there’s one thing that you simply didn’t predict that occurred and which may occur once more.
“In these instances, I believe the method to fixing the issue is super-important. I believe we turned way more stable at it and that comes again to the staff mentality and the best way we method issues and the emotion administration inside groups. We’ve improved so much and I believe that has made the distinction in recovering faster every time we get in these moments which are a bit tougher to handle.”
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Heading into the brand new season, Ferrari faces a distinct problem in comparison with 12 months in the past, says Leclerc, as their earlier automotive was not weak in any particular space on the finish of final season. “On the finish of 2023, I believe it was very clear which traits of the automotive we needed to sort out, as a result of there have been some points that have been very clear that we needed to change.
“In 2024 it was a really totally different state of affairs as a result of I believe the automotive was a really wholesome one usually. Simply after we had the improve drawback there have been some issues that we needed to alter. However after that we had an excellent automotive, we simply wanted extra efficiency. In order that’s the place we focussed actually for this new automotive, to do small steps in each single factor and never focus in a single explicit factor.”
Having solely had a preliminary shakedown run with its new automotive on Wednesday, Leclerc mentioned the staff should wait and see whether or not the modifications to it, similar to the brand new entrance pull-rod suspension, work as supposed.
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“It’s very troublesome to really feel that on a Thursday on a observe like Fiorano with such chilly situations,” he mentioned. “We are going to probably see much more in Bahrain.
“Nonetheless, the scope of a day like that is to to begin with see the primary numbers, to see if there’s nothing standing out. The primary feeling, to see if there’s nothing standing out in a destructive means, clearly. And nothing is popping out from that so which means it’s a constructive first day. However greater than that, it’s very troublesome to say.”
Avoiding the sort of growth issues which struck final yr is only one space the place the staff should enhance, says Leclerc. “One other one was the truth that we have been simply not aggressive sufficient for an excessive amount of, for too massive of part of the season,” he defined.
“We have to rectify that and begin this new season on a greater foot and to be on par no less than with the blokes within the entrance with a purpose to struggle right away from the start of the season. Our season was a really, very stable one, however we have been simply not quick sufficient within the first half.”
However he’s inspired by the potential he sees on the staff, and believes Hamilton has chosen the correct time to hitch them.
“To ensure that us to win the world championship, we positively want to begin these first races right away on high or no less than combating with the others,” mentioned Leclerc. “However we’ve performed a extremely, actually good job within the second half of the season. We’ve been working rather well and I hope we are able to use this momentum with a purpose to to begin robust this yr. Let’s see the way it goes.”
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