Ferrari dodge the favourites label as Leclerc points to two teams ahead

15:01, 14 Feb

byTobia Elia

Charles Leclerc attempted to place Ferrari in the current pecking order by analysing the competition at the end of testing in Bahrain.

“From where I stand now it's Red Bull who set us in front and then us, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a gap for now”

- Charles Leclerc

Leclerc pleased with Ferrari’s Bahrain testing performance

The Monegasque, speaking to GPblog among other media, feels everyone is currently passing the hot potato around, each team keen to cast its rivals as the favourites for now: “I think everybody's trying to throw the ball to the other guys, so it's normal at that point of the season. It's so difficult to understand. It was difficult with the previous generation of cars. But now with the hybrid and especially the electrical engine being so much more powerful, there are so many small tweaks that you can do.”

“You can hide the real potential of the car in many, many different ways now. So it's very, very difficult for us to understand exactly where we stand. What I'm happy of is that we are going through our program, we didn't have any reliability issues so far, this is a good start, everything stacks up with what we expected, so that's a good base to then start to work on and to improve.”

Leclerc pointed to Mercedes and Red Bull as particularly competitive, placing both ahead of the SF-26 for now, while describing McLaren as more of an unknown quantity at this stage.

Photo: Race Pictures

“I think Red Bull have shown very impressive things power unit wise since the start of the test, especially here. Mercedes are showing some very impressive things as well sometimes, but I would say they are hiding a lot more.

“I will expect them to especially to be a bit ahead of us and McLaren is a little bit more difficult to understand, but from where I stand now it's Red Bull who set us in front and then us, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a gap for now.”

Leclerc joins debate following Verstappen’s sharp criticism of new F1 rules

The Ferrari driver also addressed Max Verstappen’s outspoken criticism of the new regulations.

Speaking to GPblog and other media, the Monegasque acknowledged that the latest generation of cars is not particularly fun to drive, but argued that the real test for drivers lies in adapting to the challenge and unlocking their full potential.

Read the full story here.