At this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc stated that Ferrari will be competitive towards Red Bull. However, he still anticipates his battle to be for the minor positions of the podium.
Two weeks ago, Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Sergio Perez won a commanding one-two in Japan, with the Dutch finishing over ten seconds clear of his Mexican teammate. Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari came next, and his teammate Leclerc came in fourth, nearly 30 seconds behind the winner.
Leclerc admitted: “I think in the race we will be (closer)… But let’s see. It’s been a very long time since we drove here.”
F1 is back at the China circuit
For the first time in five years, Formula One is returning to China, and it has a thrilling itinerary that includes a sprint race this coming Saturday. There are some questions in the race track because the Shanghai International Circuit has not been used by the current generation of Formula One cars and it looks to have had a coat of paint applied to the recently built pavement that boosts grip.
“I think the track was painted or there’s something strange on it so we will have to see how our car behaves with that and what the main limitations are in the race,” Leclerc declared.
Leclerc is eager to improve in his own competition, especially on a sprint race weekend, even though he has finished in the top four in each of the season’s four races.
“I still think Red Bull will have the upper hand this weekend… We will just have to focus on ourselves because it can be very easy, as we have seen especially in qualifying in Suzuka, to not do a good job on the Saturday and then you don’t go from fourth to fifth, you go from fourth to eighth…Sprint weekend with two qualifyings to extract the maximum out of the car — it’s going to be very important,” the driver concluded.
Cover Photo: IG
Source: CNA
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