Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari is “missing” a key factor in its
battle with Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship. The race
for second is heating up between the two marquee teams, as Formula
1 enters the final two races of the 2023 season in Las Vegas and
Abu Dhabi. Both teams suffered setbacks over the recent
triple-header after Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified
after the US Grand Prix, with the Monegasque also not taking the
start in Brazil after crashing with suspected hydraulic failure on
the formation lap. It followed team-mate Carlos Sainz also not
starting in Qatar due to a fuel system issue, with Mercedes
currently on 382 points to Ferrari’s 362 – a lead of 20 – with two
rounds and 88 points remaining on the board. Leclerc: We’ve made
big steps Despite suffering from reliability issues throughout the
season, Leclerc thinks there is one key area the team needs to
focus on to achieve second place. “Race pace is what we are missing
the most but I will also say that yes, we are missing 20 points to
Mercedes and short-term, this is where we should focus,” he told
media, including RacingNews365 . “Since Zandvoort, we’ve made big
steps forward in the understanding of our car, in the concepts that
we have and the directions we’ve been taking. “Until now the first
part of the season was mostly down off experiencing what were the
best directions to go into for the future. “We’ve set it a little
bit more and understood which is the direction to push. “This gives
me the confidence that we can close the gap in the future, then how
close or when is much more difficult to answer. “Ferrari wants to
be back on top. There are many more points to recover to be the
first team, especially against a Red Bull that is extremely strong
at the moment. “That is the medium to long-term target and yeah, so
that’s why we are putting all the efforts in order to be back to
the level of performance we’ve seen at the beginning of last year,
where we were fighting for wins and fighting for the championship.”
Source: Read More