Charles Leclerc admitted that a late change in the set-up and a not-so-perfect qualifying session didn’t allow him to maximize the SF24 potential, but the aim is to beat Perez on Sunday.
Leclerc tried to find even more performance ahead of qualifying by adjusting his front wing settings and having a more precise front end. However, that didn’t help him find more pace as he struggled with the car’s balance.
“In FP3 already, I felt like it was going away a little bit from me, but I was confident that it would come back to the feeling in qualifying, as is normally the case.
“Whenever we have a strange feeling in FP3, then you put the new tires in quali, low fuel, and everything comes alive again.
“Today wasn’t the case. I struggled quite a lot with the front tires, until the last run in Q3 where I went very aggressive with the front wing to try something, and I went the other way.
“But all-in-all, it hasn’t been a clean day for me, I haven’t been driving as well as yesterday. But tomorrow the race is long, and I’ll try to maximize everything.”
Leclerc continued by saying that when Red Bull turned up its engine mode, it was clearly visible that getting pole position would’ve been a difficult business. However, as both Ferraris were close in Q1, he was still pretty confident.
Referring to the race, the Monégasque believes Max Verstappen is unreachable, but Perez could be a possible target.
“I saw that Red Bull started to put the engine on full power,” he said. “And from Turn 7 to Turn 9 I think we were already losing three tenths this morning. So that was huge.
“And then from that moment onwards, I felt like the pole position would have been difficult. But then in Q1, we were very strong, so I was, ‘Okay, maybe.’ In the end, it wasn’t.
“I think realistically, it’s going to be difficult to target the win because Max [Verstappen] is going to be too strong. Checo [Perez] might be a target.
“But they seem strong once again because they have more margin than what we initially thought they had yesterday.
“But all-in-all, my target is obviously to try and come back and be on the podium. And if that’s beating Checo, then we’ll try and do that.”