Charles Leclerc admits Ferrari has work to do in order to “cat༒ch up” to its chief Formula 1 rival Mercedes when the 2020 season 🐬finally starts.

Despite being tipped to mount a stronger chal🗹lenge t꧅o Mercedes this year in the championship race, Ferrari appeared to struggle during winter testing as the German manufacturer ended the two weeks of pre-season once again looking like the team to beat.

Ferrari conceded it had lost some of its previous power advantage in a bid to fi꧑nd greater cornering performance this season, though its overall package seemed to be lagging behind Merc꧙edes as the teams arrived in Melbourne for the planned season-opener, before the coronavirus pandemic forced the current suspension to racing.

Scu💫deria team principal Mattia Binotto insiste🌌d that the team’s showing during pre-season was a reflection of its “true” performance, and Leclerc echoed his boss’ verdict.

“I still believe we have been strugglin❀g a bit during testing so we need to catch up,” Leclerc said during a video interview from his Monaco apartment.

“Whether we will be able to or not I don’t know, but last year we had a good progression throughout the year. I think we need to keep working as we did last yeꦕar and I’m pretty sure the results will come.

“It’s going to be a difficult season for everyone because as soon as it starts it’s not goin🤡g to stop and we won’t have any breaks to develop the car more than the others,” he added.

“So I think the work on track will be extremely important and more than it has been any other years because we will spend a lot of time on track whenever the season w♋ill restart.

“It’s going to be very important to be focused and ready from the first race onwards and us drivers need to be able to give the right feedba⛦ck to the team and to try and help the team in the right direction straight away.”