Charles Leclerc admits the new Ferrari challenger is 'less draggy' and 'quicker in the straights'

Charles Leclerc believes the new Ferrari SF-23 is 'less draggy' and 'quicker in the straights' than last year's F1-75.

Ferrari started 2022 strong before their season fell apart as Red Bull ran away with the title. Much of their limitations were down to high levels of downforce, with their heavily sculpted sidepods feeding air to the underfloor Venturi Tunnel, which is critical for all ground-effect cars.

Unfortunately, the Scuderia had no answer for Red Bull's straight-line speed advantage that saw them win 17 out of 22 races last season.

Those shortcomings have resulted in Ferrari changing its philosophy for the 2023 season. Charles Leclerc believes their challenger for this season has what it takes to battle with the RB19.

While speaking to motorsport.com during pre-season, the Monegasque driver was asked if Ferrari's change in philosophy had improved the team's aerodynamic efficiency. He said:

“It did. I won’t go into too much details, but I think that was done in the right way. And I think we have a less draggy car, so that should be better this year. But it changed other characteristics. All in line with what we expected, but we still need to find the right set-up for these new characteristics. I expect us to be a little bit quicker in the straights, maybe struggling a little bit more in the corners.”

Ferrari has been working on this since 2022, which has continued into this season. Leclerc tested with different rear-wing options and even suffered a DRS glitch during the final day of pre-season testing. He went on to add:

“With this three-day test I can say that we are still working quite a bit on track to find the sweet spot of the car in terms of set-up. So, I hope there’s some margin still – that we haven’t found the sweet spot yet.”

---

"Ferrari is very different to whatever we are used to before" - Charles Leclerc impressed with new team principal Frederic Vasseur

Charles Leclerc has revealed that Frederic Vasseur has started on the right foot as the new Ferrari team principal.

Vasseur was brought over to replace Mattia Binotto at the start of the year and has a working history with Charles Leclerc from their time together at Alfa Romeo.

Speaking about his new team principal settling into the role at Maranello, the Monegasque driver said:

"Ferrari is very different to whatever we are used to before. Ferrari is huge. And once he got here, he understood extremely well the way Ferrari works from the first few days."

Leclerc went on to add:

"He's very clear in what he wants and he's extremely good at putting the people in the right mindset and in the right ambiance to give their best. And this is very important. So, that's what he brings to Ferrari and I'm sure it will be a good thing."

Vasseur has less than a week to go before the first race weekend of the new season to show how much progress Ferrari has made under his watch.