Charles Leclerc believes F1 title is “not out of reach” but there will be “no miracles” at Australian Grand Prix
Leclerc failed to finish the season-opener in Bahrain then came P7 in Saud𓂃i Arabia, while Red Bull won both of 2023’s races through each of their drivers.
Ferrari have also experienced mishaps whic🔯h have become the norm in recent years - Leclerc needed a new energy store before the first racꦓe, so was hit with a grid penalty in the second.
Ahead of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:F1 Australian Grand Prix, the 2022 runner-up in the F1 standings told Sky that this year’s champ💟ionship is still possible: “Of course it is, it’s still early in the season.
“We cannot hꩵide and say that everything is fine, and that from this weekend onwards we’ll be fighting for 🧜wins again.
“We need to be realistic. The way it is now, we’re far away fr♊om the peꦫrformance we want.
ꦑ“That doesn’t mean we need tꦅo demotivate ourselves.
“The season is long, we have upgrades coming in the next few races, hopefully this will help us to🌳 close the gap to Red Bull who are in another league. Aston Ma🌊rtin are also really strong in races.
“We need to work, we know this.
“But we don’t think the title is out of reach.”
Leclerc is returning to the scene in Melbওourne where he claimed victory last season by more than 20s.
The Ferrari driver won two of the opening three races in 2022, emer🌄ging as a viable threat to Max Verstappen until his team’s reliability issues hampered him.
“Good memories, but we’re not coming into this race in the same situation,” he sighed ab🔥out last year’s joy.
“Clearly, our ♔performance is not as good as last🐎 year.
“We are fully motivated to get back to the front.
“There won’t be any miracles this weekend.
“Then we’ve got a three-week break where we’ll try to bring upgra♓des.”
Leclerc has been forced to shoot down reports that he demanded c☂risis talks with Ferrari president John Elkann at Maranello t𒐪his season.
He has also d🐷enied plans that he will move to Merꦑcedes.
Ferrari are also exper🃏iencing an upheaval behind-the-s🧔cenes at Maranello.
New team principal Fred Vasseur said about their slow start: “The most important tꦇhing in this kind of situation is to know where we are going well and what we are doing wrong. But we cannot bulls*** ourselves.
“We have to c♛hange. We have to understand where we are wrong, and we have to push. It’s not [good enough] to speak, we will not be faster🏅 like this.”
🙈Leclerc’s tꦰeammate Carlos Sainz added: “We know this track isn’t too different from Jeddah. Nothing says we should out-pace the Red Bulls.
“I prefer to keep expectations low. We were eight tenths off, in the race. To change that just because of a different circuit? Diffi🌺cult.”
Sainz sai🐼d about the SF-23: “It’s a bit inconsistent, unpredictable. Let’s say it’s not the eas🌟iest to set it up. But we know why.
“We know the numbers, the data🔯, we’ve analysed it, we know where the weaknesses are.
“🐟This gives us an idea of how to develop, the direction to go. This will be medium-term.
“The car is doing what the data suggests. This makes me optimistic. Ferrari has the capacitꦇy to develop, the m🔜anpower to change quickly.”
James was a sports journ🌃alist at Sky Sports for ♓a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
