Ferrari will need to perform a reset after emotional Monza victory
Having secured an emotional victory at last Sundays Italian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc thinks that Ferrari will need to perform a reset ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as the pecking order could be different, given this year’s performance swings.
Ferrari looked strong all through the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified fourth and fifth on the grid, having missed the crucial final tenth of a second to be in contention for pole position.
Although Leclerc had a masterful start and executed an ambitious move on McLaren's Lando Norris on the first lap to move himself up into second place, Oscar Piastri initially looked in control of the victory. But McLaren made an unexpected decision to call the Australian in for a second stop while Ferrari elected to pursue an aggressive one-stop strategy with both its drivers.
McLaren's strategy sent Leclerc into the lead, and with the Monégasque having mastered his tyres during an extremely long stint, the Ferrari driver took an emotional victory in front of the Scuderia's passionate Tifosi.
Asked how Ferrari need to approach the next races, Leclerc warned his team to build up too high expecations. The Monegasque stated that the tough period following his emotional victory at the Monaco Grand Prix showed that things can change very quickly in Formula One.
"I've said that after Monaco, and I think we did that, we shouldn't rely on the race we have just done. And as a team, it's really important for us that once we come back at the factory tomorrow, we reset from everything that has happened during the weekend.
“We learn from it and we try to analyse everything, but we should leave emotions aside. and reset as a team and go again in Baku, not having crazy high expectations because that's not where the team is at the moment.
“I repeat myself, but Monza is a very specific track. We have been very strong this weekend, but Baku will be maybe very different and Singapore again very different. So we've got to reset. We did that reset from Monaco to Montreal, but as we've seen from Monaco to Montreal, it was a really big change from one weekend to another.
“And then we went through three or four of the worst races of the season, just because we were trying to understand what was going on in our car. So hopefully we don't go through three or four very difficult races from now on, and I don't think it will be the case.
“But again, it's very important that not only the team, but I think also the expectations from outside don't become crazy high from one race to another because this is not realistic. Have we done a step forward? Yes. Is it enough to go and win races until the end of the season? I don't think so yet, but we did a good step in the right direction."
Despite winning the Italian Grand Prix, Leclerc still thinks that Ferrari slightly lacks speed compared to the field-leading McLaren and Red Bull.
"Again, before this race, I don't think I was seeing myself challenging for wins anywhere else. Maybe Singapore. Singapore maybe could be a strong track for us.
"On the other tracks, I still feel like we are a step behind McLaren and Red Bull. But today we've seen that we can be very on a par with McLaren if we do everything perfect. Again, I think that the upgrade has helped us in some ways today to have the same pace as them.
"However, for the other tracks, I don't know whether it will be enough to completely close the gap, especially the gap we've seen in the previous races, not here. So, yeah, we've got to wait and see, but we've done some step forward. I think we need some others.
