A largely anonymous Ferrari was part of the plan as they alter their testing approach for 2020, Charles Leclerc says.
Unlike last year, there was no fastest times or anything like that from the Italian team on Wednesday, instead the Monegasque finished the day only 11th fastest but did put in the miles with 131 laps.
It was a late early start for Leclerc, however, who revealed he got a 6:45am wake-up call for the 8am start after teammate Sebastian Vettel skipped the day through illness.
But as Mercedes topped the timesheets, it almost felt like Ferrari was still asleep.
“We didn’t focus on performance but more about trying to know the car at its best before working on performance,” Leclerc explained.
“We change a little bit our approach compared to last year. Last year the testing was great but the first race was a bit less great.
“We’ve learned a few things from this, so this year we’ve decided to focus more on ourselves, to learn the car as much as possible in the first few days and then focus on performance a bit later on, and we will see if that pays off.”
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As a result of the different approach then, Leclerc admits he’s yet to really know where the SF1000 stands versus its predecessor.
“For now, it’s a positive first day but very difficult to compare,” he said.
“For sure there’s been a lot of work, it can only be an evolution, but to tell you where exactly I can’t tell you because we didn’t push the car yet.”
Leclerc heads into 2020 will much higher expectations on his shoulders following his seven poles and two wins last season, results that have earned him equal status alongside Sebastian Vettel.
And the 22-year-old is also aware that to meet those goals, he’ll have to continue raising his game.
“The only goal I want to achieve this year is that when 2020 is finished I look back at my year and I don’t see any missed opportunities,” he claimed.
“When I look back at 2019 there were a few, by myself and overall as a team. At the end of 2020, I want this to be a lot less than in 2019, this will be the main goal.”