Leclerc: Ferrari have “changed a little bit” of their approach from last year

Charles Leclerc has said that Ferrari’s approach to pre-season testing has “changed a little bit” compared to last year, focusing on themselves and the car a bit more than performance.

12 months ago Ferrari were evidently fastest during pre-season testing and looked to be the team to beat for 2019.
 
But at the first race in Melbourne that wasn’t the case as they only managed to take three wins throughout the year, falling second best to Mercedes once again.
 
Leclerc was brought in as a late replacement for and ill Sebastian Vettel on the first day of testing
 
“Of course we changed a little bit our approach compared to last year,” he said, quoted by MotorsportWeek.

“Last year the testing was great but the first race was a bit less great and I think we’ve learnt a few things on this. 

“This year we’ve decided to focus a bit more on ourselves and trying to learn the car as much as possible in these first days and then focus on performance a bit later on and we will see if that pays off.”

The Monegasque added that Ferrari have tried to increase the amount of flexibility of the set-up of the SF1000 to aid his driving style.

Leclerc added that Ferrari has attempted to have a greater flexibility in the set-up of its SF1000 in order to assist his cause.

“Last year there were noting all my comments so they obviously know me a lot better as a driver and what I need, what balance I need to perform at my best on track,” he explained.

“They tried to have the flexibility in the car setup to fit my driving style, which will be the biggest difference for this year. This should be a step forward. 

“We didn’t push the car yet but we know we have more flexibility, this is fact.”