Leclerc hails “step forward” on Ferrari’s wind sensitivity woes

This has in turn contributed to much-improved consistency over a stint, which was the key weakness that hampered the team in races in 2023.

Leclerc and team-mate Carlos Sainz struggled for much of the year to maintain consistent form, even with different sets of the same tyre compound.

While the situation was improved with car development, Leclerc says that the SF-24 represents a further step, with strong long-run performance evident in Bahrain testing.

“On our side it’s quite a lot better,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com about the wind issue.

“Last year’s car, I think one of the main weaknesses was the wind sensitivity. Whenever the wind will change a tiny bit, our car will be extremely difficult to drive. Huge differences in terms of balance from one corner to the other.

“And this year we are in a much better place for that. So it is definitely a step forward on that. It was wanted, we worked a lot on it, and we had the confirmation already from the first day.”

Leclerc said that the improvements were already apparent in the Maranello simulator, and were successfully transferred to the real car in Bahrain. However, he cautioned that it remains to be seen how that improvement translates into overall form.

“Honestly, from the first lap on the simulator, it felt like an easier car to drive whenever we drove with some wind,” he said. “And similar on the track from the very first laps here.

“Once we got here, the feeling was good. We managed to be consistent straight away. And this will help the race runs.

“However, as I’ve said these past few days, drivability and competitiveness are two very different things. Last year we were struggling a lot to be consistent, because the car was just a little bit all over the place whenever there was some wind.

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean, especially in qualifying, that we will win a lot thanks to that. And that doesn’t mean anything compared to Red Bull. 

“So we still have to work a lot. And then we’ll see how competitive we are next Friday [in qualifying].

“But I am confident that we definitely did a step forward in terms of tyre management, because whenever tyres are more [worn], the weaknesses of the car are more apparent, you can feel them more. And with the characteristics of this car, it should be quite a bit better.”