Leclerc: “I feel comfortable. Performance? We’re not looking at it. We’re in line with the programme”

Leclerc’s satisfaction Today was a rather productive day for Ferrari in Barcelona. The absence of the bad weather that had instead characterized Tuesday – the first in which the SF-26 had taken to the track – allowed first Lewis Hamilton and then Charles Leclerc to clock up the kilometres. Overall, the red single-seater completed 174 laps on this Catalan Thursday, even surpassing Mercedes in this statistical data. A good start for the closing of these shakedowns and above all for the tests in mid-February in Bahrain, which will probably provide a first realistic ranking of the hierarchies. “It was positive to be able to have a complete day in more representative conditions – commented Charles Leclerc at the end of the day – with these regulations everything is new, so there is a lot to learn and discover and the way of driving the car is quite different compared to what we were used to in recent years. It is a real challenge, but also an opportunity to approach things differently. I feel more and more comfortable in the car, even if the management of the new systems, in particular with the greater contribution of the electrical part of the power unit, is At this stage we are not looking at performance, but at completing our checklist and understanding the car as thoroughly as possible. There is still a lot to do, but we are on track with our programme, and this is encouraging in our work ahead of the next test in Bahrain.”