Charles Leclerc: Ferrari's focus must be on race pace

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc: Ferrari's focus must be on race pace

He wants continued improvements in Germany.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 23 July 2019 16:39

Charles Leclerc is hoping that Ferrari can continue to improve in order to mount a challenge for the German Grand Prix this weekend, but insists their main improvement must be on race pace as opposed to qualifying.

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are currently running away with both the constructors’ and drivers’ championships, with the Silver Arrows commanding a huge 164-point lead over Ferrari in the former.

The Scuderia are yet to win a race this season, with Max Verstappen the only driver so far to stop a clean sweep for Mercedes. Leclerc thinks Ferrari can challenge too, if they can just maintain their power for the whole weekend.

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“I am looking forward to Hockenheim. Over the past few weekends, we have made some progress in qualifying. Now we have to focus on the race pace because that’s where we seem to be struggling the most at the moment,” he told the Formula 1 Ferrari site.

Looking at the Hockenheimring, Leclerc is a fan of some of the aspects of the track in Germany, and believes Ferrari could potentially take advantage of them in order to fight for their first victory of the 2019 campaign.

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“As for the circuit, it features some nice characteristics with a mixture of different corner types and straights,” he continued.

“The last race was very exciting and fun to experience from inside the car, so I hope we can have another good one in Germany and be able to fight for the win”

Leclerc has found things difficult since making the step-up from Alfa Romeo (then Sauber) to Ferrari, but has improved in recent weeks to better team-mate Sebastian Vettel, with five podium spots to his name so far.