Ferrari is aiming to assert themselves at the head of the midfield in the final six races of 2020 after recent gains.
Amid a raft of small upgrades to their beleaguered SF1000, Charles Leclerc has qualified in the top five at three of the past four races.
Issues with tyre wear had seen the Monegasque struggle on race day but in Portugal last Sunday, Leclerc was able to comfortably secure fourth in the race, over half a minute clear of the rest of the midfield pack.
“Indications from the past few Grands Prix are positive and we hope the same will apply this weekend,” Head of Performance Development Enrico Cardile commented via Formula1.com
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“It would be very useful to at least find ourselves heading the group of cars and drivers currently fighting within just a few tenths for places four and lower.
“Only a couple of times this year have we been able to fight for a place in the sun on the second or third row, and our aim between now and December is to be consistently fighting for those places.
“But then, precisely because this part of the grid is so close, it takes hardly anything to find yourself fourth or 12th, but that’s all part of the game.”
The pace of Leclerc last weekend also has Ferrari’s rivals taking notice.
“Obviously it was an impressive race that Charles did,” McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl said.
“As we always said, we never underestimated the ability of Ferrari striking back already during this season.
“It will be interesting if they have solved the issues we have seen in previous races when they also had strong qualifying performance but they were dropping back quite quickly in the race with the tyres degrading.
“This obviously was a special tarmac here [at Portimao], special conditions and the car they had, they could put up a very impressive race pace with the medium and the hard tyre which I think no one else could do.
“So, therefore, it will be interesting to see if it was just a one-off or if they have solved the issue they had in previous races.”
Ahead of this weekend’s race at Imola, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto looked ahead to 2021 and voiced a desire to once again be close to Mercedes and Red Bull.
“It is not realistic that Ferrari will fight for the World Championship next year,” he told Sky Italia.
“What we have to do again is fight for the podium on a regular basis, that should be our goal.
“The team is alive and I am sure that we are going to take a step forward, it is the right time for a strong change.”
At the same time, the Ferrari chief highlighted the opportunity offered the following year to once again challenge for wins and more.
“We all have the opportunity to start with a new regulation for 2022 and not only that, but we will also be able to work on aerodynamics from next January. It’s a good challenge, it will make the cards shuffle,” Binotto added.
“The rules as they are written are very restrictive, so there are few opportunities to come up with something different.
“The reasons for change, though, are the right ones: to increase the show and also to make the cars lose more aerodynamic performance in order to be closer to the driver in front.”
