Charles Leclerc admits Ferrari are not “panicking” despite sitting a long way behind Mercedes in Australian Grand Prix practice.
After expectations that the Italian team would set the benchmark based on pre-season testing, Sebastian Vettel was only fifth fastest with the Monegasque down in ninth at the end of Friday.
However, that followed an opening session when both Ferrari drivers had finished within a tenth of Lewis Hamilton and, analysing the situation, Leclerc believes that is a more accurate representation.
“FP1 has been positive, so I’m very happy about this,” he explained. “The second session a bit less happy, there were more difficulties, the wind picked up and we seemed to struggle a bit more.
“There is no panic, we will try to figure out what is wrong. We already have some ideas and hopefully, we can fix it for tomorrow.”
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Throughout the day, there were suggestions Ferrari was deliberately hiding their pace, resulting in the eventual 0.8s gap between Hamilton and Vettel.
“At the end, we were not flat out, we will only see where we are in qualifying, but it was a more difficult session,” Leclerc replied.
With so much expectation surrounding the 21-year-old, there was a small moment when he spun exiting Turn 4 which raised some eyebrows.
“I tried to use the throttle on the kerb and made a mistake,” he told of the official F1 website. “There is no damage so it’s no big deal.”