Charles Leclerc, from Monaco, driving for Ferrari SF-24, expressed his belief that the team’s strong performance in the practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix gives them a great chance to surpass Red Bull this season. In the first practice session, Leclerc finished fourth, just 0.035 seconds behind Lando Norris, but in the second session, he was almost four tenths faster than Max Verstappen. Ferrari made significant improvements to their car, the SF-24, addressing previous issues with wind sensitivity. Leclerc was pleased with how the car behaved right from the start in Melbourne. While acknowledging that Red Bull is still the team to beat, Leclerc hopes that Ferrari’s impressive pace in practice can create opportunities to challenge them.
The general consensus from the early races is that Ferrari has achieved their goal of translating their impressive speed in qualifying into a more consistent performance during races in 2024.
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko noted that Leclerc’s performance during the second practice session was “impressive.” However, Leclerc himself pointed out that some teams were unable to complete clean laps due to traffic.
“The race pace seems to be quite strong, but it’s hard to make comparisons because some drivers faced heavy traffic while we had relatively clean laps. However, it looked promising,” Leclerc stated.
“It’s better to have a good performance on Friday than the opposite. It’s a positive start, but we still need to keep pushing and see what we can achieve,” he added.
During practice, Leclerc, like many other drivers, faced challenging moments, such as losing control in Turn 1 and sliding through the grass runoff area at the end of the session.
“Everything is very complicated,” admitted Leclerc. “The track is very demanding, with high curbs and strong winds. In addition, there is only one racing line, so if you deviate a little, you lose a significant amount of grip. It definitely represents a challenge.”
“However, we have shown good speed so far and we are enjoying it. But we will have to wait and see if we can maintain our pace tomorrow,” Leclerc concluded.
