Charles Leclerc teases next Ferrari strong track as Monza win sparks clear warning

Charles Leclerc sees Singapore as the next venue where Ferrari could shine, but wants to keep emotions and expectations in check after a huge Monza win.

Ferrari brought a heavily-upgraded SF-24 to their home race, hoping this upgrade package would prove more successful than that introduced in Spain. The answer was rather empathic, as Ferrari and Leclerc made the one-stop strategy work to claim victory and send the tifosi wild.

Charles Leclerc urges Ferrari be ‘cautious’ after huge Monza win

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

But after soaking up the emotion of that Monza triumph, Leclerc wants feet firmly on the ground at Ferrari, highlighting how his Monaco victory was followed by a wretched run of races for team and driver.

Like Monaco, Monza was described as a “very specific” track by Leclerc, who feels Ferrari remain a step behind McLaren for outright pace.

“We’ve got to be cautious,” he told media, including PlanetF1.com, after his Italian Grand Prix victory.

“After Monaco, I think we’ve had the four worst races of the season, because Monaco was so specific to our car at that time. Monza is also a very specific and particular track. Lots of straights, not many corners.

“We had a rear wing for this track as well, which helped us to win. We had also another upgrade, which I think definitely brought us closer to McLaren, but I don’t think it’s enough to be the car to beat for the rest of the season on other tracks.

“I think we still have a lot of work to do, but I’m really happy anyway to have won here in Italy.”

But, asked if there is a track still coming up in F1 2024 where Ferrari can take the fight to McLaren and Red Bull again, Leclerc highlighted Singapore as a potential opportunity, with Monza proving that they can match McLaren if they perfect a race weekend.

It was in Singapore last year where Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz inflicted Red Bull’s only defeat of the entire 2023 season.

“Again, before this race, I don’t think I was seeing myself challenging for wins anywhere else,” Leclerc said.

“Maybe Singapore. Singapore maybe could be a strong track for us. On the other tracks, I still feel like we are a step behind McLaren and Red Bull. But we’ve seen that we can be very on a par with McLaren if we do everything perfect.

“Again, I think that the upgrade has helped us in some ways to have the same pace as them. However, for the other tracks, I don’t know whether it will be enough to completely close the gap, especially the gap we’ve seen in the previous races, not here.

“So, yeah, we’ve got to wait and see, but we’ve done some step forward. I think we need some others.”

Catch-up on the key Monza talking points

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Surely though, Monza provides a huge shot of momentum for Ferrari with eight rounds remaining of F1 2024 remaining and a Constructors’ title challenge brewing.

Leclerc does not want to look at it in that way, and instead wants a “reset” of emotions after Monza.

On the subject of taking momentum from Monza, Leclerc said: “Well, again, I think we shouldn’t, and I’ve said that after Monaco, and I think we did that, we shouldn’t rely on the race we have just done.

“And as a team, it’s really important for us that once we come back at the factory, we reset from everything that has happened during the weekend. We learn from it and we try to analyse everything, but we should leave emotions aside and reset as a team and go again in Baku, not having crazy high expectations because that’s not where the team is at the moment.

“I repeat myself, but Monza is a very specific track. We have been very strong this weekend, but Baku will be maybe very different and Singapore again very different. So we’ve got to reset.

“We did that reset from Monaco to Montreal, but as we’ve seen from Monaco to Montreal, it was a really big change from one weekend to another. And then we went through three or four of the worst races of the season, just because we were trying to understand what was going on in our car.

“So hopefully we don’t go through three or four very difficult races from now on, and I don’t think it will be the case. But again, it’s very important that not only the team, but I think also the expectations from outside don’t become crazy high from one race to another because this is not realistic.

“Have we done a step forward? Yes. Is it enough to go and win races until the end of the season? I don’t think so yet, but we did a good step in the right direction.”

Ferrari are now only 39 points behind F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship leaders Red Bull.

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