Charles Leclerc has said there is still “some margin” for improvement, despite significant lowering the best testing time on Thursday.
On what is the Monegasque’s final day in the car before Melbourne, he would post a 1m16.231s on his third flying lap using the C5 Pirelli tyre, six-tenths clear of the rest.
Certainly, it was a strong statement after two problematic days for Leclerc, who missed a lot of Tuesday due to a cooling system check and only had one lap on Wednesday after teammate Sebastian Vettel crashed.
However: “Obviously I think as [with] everybody we are not flat-out,” he told reporters during the lunch break. “There’s still some margin, a bit obviously in myself I still have to learn and get more comfortable with the car.”
While main rivals Mercedes have introduced a number of upgrades and is looking to make gains, Leclerc also revealed little in the baseline has really changed on the SF90 over the first week of testing.
“It hasn’t changed since Day 1 to be honest, it feels comfortable,” he explained. “The balance has been pretty nice and it hasn’t changed today, so it’s a positive day, especially after the lack of running yesterday it’s a good morning for us.”
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Despite his very positive start to life as a Ferrari race driver, Leclerc also insists he is still making personal progress.
“It feels good to be on top, but it doesn’t mean anything,” the 21-year-old stated. “I think my weakness is the technical knowledge that I have in the car, but that is something that I will learn with the experience I get.”
And as for what his lap time means for the year ahead…
“It’s difficult to say, it’s testing,” he said. “I think we are looking strong at the moment.
“Whether or not they are sandbagging more or less, we don’t know and we’ll only know in qualifying but, for now, we are pretty happy with the job that we’re doing.”
