Charles Leclerc says an ability to drive “naturally” at Ferrari has allowed him to enjoy strong results in recent races.
The Monegasque is enjoying the best stint of his first season at the Scuderia, claiming podiums in the past four races and beating teammate Sebastian Vettel at the last three.
Asked what has made the difference, he admits to being much more settled now at Ferrari, after the initial nerves.
“I think before France, it was more myself that was adapting to the car,” he was quoted by GPFans.
“After that, I changed a little bit the approach, and I think I adapted the car a little bit which enabled to drive me a little bit more naturally, which helped me.
“Arriving in such a big team, when I arrived it was only my second year in Formula 1 and you are a little bit intimidated,” he admits.
“I was a little bit intimidated and just to arrive and straight away say ‘I want this, this and this’ was not the way I wanted to start this relationship.
“So at first, I wanted to understand the car, try to adapt my driving as much as possible to the car.
“I think at one point I managed to do good things adapting my driving style but then I felt there was more performance by trying to put the car a little bit more into my direction and this has helped the performance a bit since then.”
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As for his recent success against Vettel, while poor results in qualifying have hampered the German, Leclerc also thinks he has better adapted to the characteristics of the SF90.
“To be completely honest on that point, I struggle or feel it less,” the 21-year-old said on his teammate’s problem with understeer.
“He’s complaining a little bit about entering stability which it doesn’t affect me as much, but these are the weaknesses and we know them, and we are trying very hard to try and fix them as soon as possible.
“At the end I feel comfortable with the car, it has some weaknesses but in the end I think Seb has done very good races too, maybe he hasn’t been so lucky in the last few ones but I’m very sure soon he will be back on top, it’s just a matter of time.
“At the moment I just feel good in the car, happy with the car. As I said, we still need to be working, especially on our race pace and that is what we are doing to make improvements soon.”