Since returning from appendix surgery that ruled him out of the Saudi Grand Prix, Sainz has outqualified Leclerc in Australia and Japan, and won the Melbourne race from second on the grid.
Leclerc also finished behind his teammate in both races, placing second at the Australian Grand Prix and fourth behind Sainz, who finished on the podium at Suzuka.
Asked if Sainz had adapted more quickly to the Ferrari 2024 machines in the opening races, Leclerc said his teammate had simply performed at a higher level in the two most recent races.
“I think it’s as simple as he does a better job. I think in Bahrain it’s difficult to compare because on my side I was facing problems and I think it was a very strong weekend apart from that,” explained Leclerc.
“However, in the last two races he has just been stronger. It’s up to me now to work, especially on the qualifying pace, which is normally a strength.
“I struggled to complete the lap; it’s a very fine line to get it right or completely go wrong on the final lap and put the tires in the right window.
“So far I have had more difficulties than what Carlos did and he is driving at a very high level. I have worked a lot on that. And normally when I work on the points I am quite confident to improve fairly quickly.”
“I’m not worried, but obviously I have to show it on track, starting tomorrow in qualifying.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Ahead of the weekend and the demands of the Shanghai circuit, Leclerc expected Ferrari to be closer to Red Bull than they had been at Suzuka, with the fast and technical Japanese circuit having played to the strengths of the RB20.
The potential for graining of the front tires and the greater prevalence of low-speed cornering seem to suit the Ferrari SF-24’s sensitivity, and Leclerc says the focus is on extracting this immediately in the context of a sprint weekend.
“On paper I think it’s a track where we could be a little stronger compared to Suzuka, but we’re just going to approach it the same way; I still think Red Bull will have the upper hand this weekend. end,” added the Monegasque.
“We will just have to focus on ourselves because it can be very easy [to make mistakes] as we saw especially during qualifying at Suzuka, I didn’t do a good job on Saturday and then we don’t go from fourth to fifth, but we go from fourth to eighth.
“I think that in the race we will be [closer]. But let’s see, it’s been a long time since we’ve been here. I saw that the track was painted, or that there was something strange on it, so again we will have to see how our car behaves on that, and what the main limitations of the race are.
“But on paper I think we will be closer to them.”
Since returning from appendix surgery that ruled him out of the Saudi Grand Prix, Sainz has outqualified Leclerc in Australia and Japan, and won the Melbourne race from second on the grid.
Leclerc also finished behind his teammate in both races, placing second at the Australian Grand Prix and fourth behind Sainz, who finished on the podium at Suzuka.
Asked if Sainz had adapted more quickly to the Ferrari 2024 machines in the opening races, Leclerc said his teammate had simply performed at a higher level in the two most recent races.
“I think it’s as simple as he does a better job. I think in Bahrain it’s difficult to compare because on my side I was facing problems and I think it was a very strong weekend apart from that,” explained Leclerc.
“However, in the last two races he has just been stronger. It’s up to me now to work, especially on the qualifying pace, which is normally a strength.
“I struggled to complete the lap; it’s a very fine line to get it right or completely go wrong on the final lap and put the tires in the right window.
“So far I have had more difficulties than what Carlos did and he is driving at a very high level. I have worked a lot on that. And normally when I work on the points I am quite confident to improve fairly quickly.”
“I’m not worried, but obviously I have to show it on track, starting tomorrow in qualifying.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Ahead of the weekend and the demands of the Shanghai circuit, Leclerc expected Ferrari to be closer to Red Bull than they had been at Suzuka, with the fast and technical Japanese circuit having played to the strengths of the RB20.
The potential for graining of the front tires and the greater prevalence of low-speed cornering seem to suit the Ferrari SF-24’s sensitivity, and Leclerc says the focus is on extracting this immediately in the context of a sprint weekend.
“On paper I think it’s a track where we could be a little stronger compared to Suzuka, but we’re just going to approach it the same way; I still think Red Bull will have the upper hand this weekend. end,” added the Monegasque.
“We will just have to focus on ourselves because it can be very easy [to make mistakes] as we saw especially during qualifying at Suzuka, I didn’t do a good job on Saturday and then we don’t go from fourth to fifth, but we go from fourth to eighth.
“I think that in the race we will be [closer]. But let’s see, it’s been a long time since we’ve been here. I saw that the track was painted, or that there was something strange on it, so again we will have to see how our car behaves on that, and what the main limitations of the race are.
“But on paper I think we will be closer to them.”