Leclerc: The potential is in the car

Ferrari were even beaten by Mercedes in the most recent Formula 1 race in Spain, as it seems they could not get their upgrade to work as it should, but gearing up to this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, Leclerc is hopeful Ferrari can turn things around.

"I feel like the potential is in the car," the Monegasque told the media in Spielberg. "We just need to optimise our package and then we'll be back to where we want.

"We didn't do that in Montréal, especially with tyres and the conditions were a bit outside of our operating window. And then in Barcelona, we were just not fast enough. Again, the preparation on the simulator for this track went well. So I feel confident we'll be back in the fight," he explained.

Asked whether the layout of the Red Bull Ring would suit the SF-24, Leclerc responded: "We've been struggling mostly with long, slow-speed corners, which here there are a little bit less.

"So that's a good sign for us. But we're also working on that in order to have a better car in those corners, which I think we've seen some good steps forward in the last few races.

"However we were struggling then in other corners, so we've just got to put everything together, but we are working on it and I'm confident it will be fine this weekend," he maintained.

Following his win in Monaco, Leclerc and Ferrari have struggled, and the driver was quizzed whether the team have simply been messing up the setup.

"I don't think so," he said. "Montréal, I think we've identified quite well what was going wrong, and it was more down to the tyres. In Barcelona, I think it was just raw pace and we were just slower than what we expected.

"But I don't think we didn't optimise our package. We'll keep on working on ourselves, try to optimise also the new package that we have on the car. That obviously was the first race in Barcelona and we still have some work to try and find something and understand a bit more these new parts that we are using now.

"However, I don't think that the issues were the same in Montréal and Barcelona, so I don't think it's a trend," he claimed.

And while Leclerc pointed out Ferrari's struggles in low speed corner, it was brought to his attention that during the Spanish GP in Barcelona, the SF-24 did not seem to enjoy the high speed as well.

However he had an explanation for that, he said: "I think maybe in the race, it's always difficult to see because there's a lot of tyre management going on. And we might be saving more in 9 and 13 than others and that might look like a weakness from outside, but it might not be the case, actually.

"However, in qualifying, there are two corners where we have lost everything in Barcelona, and that was 5 and 10. And 10 being probably the corner that fits the characteristics that I was saying earlier, slow and long corners, slow-speed and long corners.

"So these are the kind of corners that we really need to work on. On 9 and 13, in qualifying, I don't think these were big weaknesses," he concluded.

Leclerc heads into the Austrian GP third in the 2024 F1 Drivers' Championship, just two points behind second-placed Lando Norris, while Max Verstappen still leads by a healthy 69 points from the Briton.