Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said he hopes to encounter fewer difficulties than what the team faced during the 2023 season.
The Scuderia launched its SF-24 on Tuesday afternoon, and expects the car to be less sensitive and easier to drive than its predecessor.
“I think last year was a very difficult season for the team,” Leclerc told the media. “However, we have worked extremely well, and it was very clear the direction in which we needed to work in order to achieve better results this year.
“I’m sure that the team has done a great job, so the few difficulties that we encountered during 2023… I’m confident that they will not be there in 2024 anymore, and that should be a good sign.”
In terms of the improvements presented by the new itineration of the Ferrari challenger, the Monegasque explained that “the main area where we had to work on was the sensitivity to the general conditions.
“We had a very tricky car last year [that] was very strong whenever we had perfect conditions, but whenever there” were other factors like high temperatures or winds “it would have a huge impact.
“We wanted to change it for this car, to make it better and easier to drive. It was very difficult [in the SF-23] whenever there were windy conditions. This is something I would like to see change for this year.”
To conclude, when asked if he expects closer racing this season given that there were little changes to the regulations, Leclerc said that it is “always impossible to predict whether we [Ferrari] will be closer to our competitors or not.”
“From one year to the other we always try to look at what we can do better as a team without focusing much on the others.
“We don’t know where the others are in terms of development so we’ll have to wait for the real first laps before we judge where we are.”