At last ! It is only during this weekend in Barcelona that Ferrari will receive substantial changes, in order to counter the return of Red Bull. The Milton Keynes car is evolving from Imola and at a faster pace than the F1-75. This was seen in the last results…
Can Ferrari come back ahead of Red Bull with the upgrades? This is of course the hope of the championship leader, Charles Leclerc, for this weekend in Barcelona.
“What do I expect from developments? Hopefully it will be good enough to be ahead of Red Bull again” he confides to us this morning before the Libre 1.
“Every time they’ve brought updates, they’ve come closer and now they’re ahead, especially at race pace. It all depends on how much we improve the car with these upgrades; and how much Red Bull improves when they also have something new. »
Charles Leclerc sees two priority points for improvement for Ferrari with the upgrades: top speed on straight lines and low-speed corners.
“Speed ​​in straight lines? We are focused on that as well as cornering performance, we are working on all aspects of the car. The tests are far away and all the teams have made progress. A lot of teams are going to bring updates. »
“Thanks to the new features, we want to improve the top speed, but not only. We also want to improve in the low speed corners, because in Miami we noticed that Red Bull was more efficient than us in this area as well. »
“They brought something too [Red Bull] in Barcelona, ​​I think it will always be like this and it has been since the start of the season, that is to say a very tight fight with Red Bull. I obviously hope to be slightly ahead this time, unlike the last two races. »
“In general, I hope to be strong enough to get back in front of them and improve overall on the corners and the straights: we did some laps in testing here, but that was a long time ago, now things are different, the cars have changed and we’ll see how it goes. »
And porpoising? It seems to affect Ferrari visually well, but not so much performance-wise. Will the developments make it possible to clarify things there too according to Charles Leclerc?
“It depends on the drivers and the cars, Carlos for example is more prone to porpoising than me, but obviously I agree with him. We don’t suffer so much from the aerodynamic rebound, but other teams suffer from it. This is undoubtedly a problem that needs to be addressed and resolved. »
Finally, an important factor to take into account will be the strong abrasiveness of the Barcelona track, which is more demanding with the Pirelli (the tire manufacturer has also brought in its toughest selection).
“Yes, the asphalt is different here and we will fight with a Red Bull which has come a lot closer to us in the last GPs and which seems to have a better rhythm than us in the race, but we hope to be able to improve with the latest developments. »