Charles Leclerc says there’s still more to come from Ferrari after setting the fastest time of Friday practice in Azerbaijan.
Leclerc’s day started in the worst possible fashion, with the Monegasque hurling his Ferrari into the barriers at the rapid turn 15 less than half an hour into FP1. Though damage was localized to his front wing and front-right corner, it ended his session on the spot with only 11 laps under his belt.
Things appeared to go from bad to worse when Leclerc reported a steering problem early in FP2, but after another spell in his garage for further repairs he was able add 20 laps to his day’s tally and pinch top spot from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez late in the hour.
Fresh off victory in Monza two weeks ago, he said he never doubted Ferrari had the speed to be competitive this weekend despite his disrupted day.
“That wasn’t great to start the weekend, but I still had a lot of confidence in the car, so there wasn’t much problem,” he said. “I braked a little bit too much on the right — the track was still dirty. I locked up and it was too late to go to the right, so I went into the wall.
“Then the thing was when we started FP2 there was actually an actual problem on the car. It was nothing to do with the crash. The mechanics had done a really good job, but we just had a problem on one new part that we had just put on the car.
“I won’t go too much into detail, but that was obviously giving me a very strange feeling with the steering wheel. We changed that, went again, then it was fine. Not as many laps as I would have hoped for for this Friday, but competitive anyway.”
Leclerc pipped Perez by just 0.006s, while Lewis Hamilton slotted into third 0.066s off the pace, painting a tight picture ahead of qualifying on Saturday.
The tight and twisty Baku circuit appeals to Leclerc, although he admits the real competitive picture is hard to gauge. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images
The 26-year-old has a mighty history in Azerbaijan, having swept to the last three poles, albeit with only one podium to show for his qualifying efforts. Though he admitted it was too early to be certain Ferrari could rise above the fray, Leclerc suggested he and the team had more performance to come overnight that could stretch their advantage.
“It’s one of the tracks I quite like, and we’ve been pretty quick in the past, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be the case for tomorrow,” he said. “It’s very tight, but it’s very difficult to see [the true competitive form] with the different engine modes of everybody.
“We still have to work on the car. There’s plenty to do to improve. There’s the driving to be improved quite a bit, because I was still taking my references a little bit in FP2; but again, we are fast, so that’s a good sign. Hopefully more to come tomorrow.”
Teammate Carlos Sainz was less committal, saying only that Ferrari could be in the mix if it executed cleanly around the treacherous circuit.
“We’re confident we’re on the pace together with the Red Bulls, the McLarens and the Mercs this weekend,” he said. “I think it’s going to be extremely tight and it’s going to be about tire preparation and putting the lap together but at the right time at the right place on track before the yellow flags and the red flags.
“Hopefully we’re on the right side of things.”
