“We need to find something more” - Charles Leclerc adamant Ferrari will need to dig deep to keep Red Bull at bay

Charles Leclerc believes it will take more than one upgrade for Ferrari to keep Red Bull at bay. The Monegasque driver feels they are better than at the start of the season but need more improvements on their car.

Asked by Sportskeeda about their tyre degradation and improved pace, Charles Leclerc said:

“Well, again, it's difficult for me to comment as I've only done one turn in Australia but I think we did a step forward for sure. It looks a little bit better but we still need to find something and that something feels quite significant still, because the Red Bull, as Checo said, maybe he could have pushed a bit more and we know that too. So yes, we need to find something more.”

He further explained:

“Basically, once you start with the tyre degradation, that's where they started to go away, or that Checo started to go away, Max started to come back. So yeah, from that moment onward, we had a little bit of a disadvantage.”

The Ferrari driver felt the tyre degradation was still a significant weakness and they tend to trail off in the race as a result. He believes they need to find more than one fix to improve their race pace and keep the Red Bull drivers at bay.

Their car has been suffering from excessive tyre degradation which compromises their performance in the race significantly. Although there were improvements in Australia that helped their straight-line speed, the 25 years old felt they needed a better fix to fight Red Bull.

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Charles Leclerc happy with the progress made by Ferrari but feels they need more

Charles Leclerc is satisfied with Ferrari’s progress in Australia and Azerbaijan but belies they need better performance. He feels they are competitive in the qualifying but lack race pace. The Monegasque feels they have made a step forward but feels there is still more work to be done.

Speaking after the sprint race, the Ferrari driver said:

“I don't know how much of a fight it was but I tried my best. We are still lacking some pace in the race. This is definitely where our focus is at the moment, it’s been the case now since quite a bit. So, we are working on that, trying to find something for the races. In Qualifying we seem to be okay. Having said that, I believe we did a step forward. I mean, if you look Australia and here, we are better. We are not yet at the level of Red Bull. So, still a lot of work to do but happier with the car.”

Realistically, Charles Leclerc was prepared to lose to Red Bull despite securing pole position for the qualifying session and the sprint. He secured second place in the sprint race and was beaten by Sergio Perez. Their cars, in cleaner or dirty air, tend to have more degradation, which plays into the hands of Red Bull, whose cars have the least tyre degradation issues on the grid.