"He doesn't wake up with a clean bill of health": Why Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are a little bit ahead of Charles Leclerc 

F1 pundit Peter Windsor recently mentioned that there was one key difference between Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc while comparing him to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

The Monegasque is often touted as one of the best drivers on the grid and is in the same league as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton on his day. He has gotten the better of both world champions on multiple occasions but has struggled to compete with them lately given SF-23's inconsistent pace.

Windsor said on his YouTube channel:

"What I've said is when people have asked me about the Top 3 drivers or compared Max and Lewis and I usually bring Charles in and some people say what's a difference between those guys? Well, when I get to Charles, I always say that he has had a different path from Lewis and Max because he doesn't wake up with a clean bill of health."

He continued:

"Comparing him to Max, who has Red Bull Racing and they all love him, brilliant car, he's got a clear picture of the next race. What he's going to do, and what setup he wants, and working with Adrian Newey, everything is very logical. Logical is a very important world in F1 because we don't see much logic really from team to team."

"That's not the case with Charles at Ferrari. It's not the case where he can think that we're going to this and that. He's always thinking what are they going to do there? There are lots of factions at Ferrari."

"We know where we need to work on" - Charles Leclerc on clawing back the gap to Max Verstappen

The Ferrari driver stated that he was aware that they are very much behind Max Verstappen and Red Bull but had the whole April break to claw back the gap.

Speaking to F1.com, he said:

“We know the story about last year, and now it’s all about focusing on what we can do better to improve and to come back to their [Red Bull’s] level. We know where we need to work on it and now we just need to make it happen."

"I think in the situation we are in as a team, we take this as an opportunity to work as much as possible during this break, in order to get upgrades as quickly as possible and be as competitive as we want sooner in this season."

It will be interesting to see if Charles Leclerc can challenge Max Verstappen in Baku in a couple of weeks.