Leclerc delivers cutting Ferrari upgrade verdict as McLaren race ahead

Charles Leclerc said he was “pleased” with the progress Ferrari have made but that it was still “not enough” to get close to championship leaders McLaren.

The Maranello outfit may be second in the Constructors’ standings but they have less than half the points of the Woking team.

Charles Leclerc demands more from Ferrari after upgrade boost

After a slow start to the year, Leclerc has hit form since the Monaco Grand Prix and aside from a P14 in Britain, the Monegasque has not finished outside of the top five in last six races, including four podiums in that time.

The cause of that uptrend in form has been pointed towards upgrades made to the Ferrari car, in particular a new floor, but Leclerc said that while that has been a positive, it is still “not enough” to unsettle McLaren.

“I’m pleased with the steps forward we are doing,” he said. “And I think we should all be proud about that because I know that behind that, there’s a lot of work behind the scenes from the people back at home for us to have this upgrade here.

“It definitely helped us to get the podium when you see how close it was with Max [Verstappen] today. However, we are all aware that this is not enough, and we need to keep pushing in order to be closer to the McLaren. This is very clear for the whole team.

“It doesn’t change that we shall be satisfied with what we’ve done this weekend.

“Max was behind the whole race within two seconds, so it’s never easy. But I knew that the first part of the race was the trickiest one for us because we maybe didn’t have the downforce that McLaren or Max had, as they compromised a little bit in qualifying to be better in the rain today.

“But luckily, it dried up pretty quickly and then the pace was good. But still, Max was right behind the whole race, so I’m pretty happy that we managed to keep that third place.”

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Next on the F1 calendar is Hungary and Leclerc said he was hoping the team would continue to learn how to “maximise” the new upgrade.

“Honestly, we’ve had what we expected with this upgrade and that’s really positive. We need to keep learning about how to maximise this new upgrade.

“It’s still pretty new, but it’s a good first weekend and I’m happy that we are on the podium to thank the whole team back in Maranello. We keep pushing and hopefully we’ll put soon a bit more pressure on the McLarens.”

Leclerc is fifth in the Drivers’ standings, 18 points off George Russell.

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