Charles Leclerc warns Ferrari upgrade ‘not enough’ to ‘win races until end of the season’
"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."
Charles Leclerc has warned that Ferrari still need to find more performance if they are able to consistently challenge McLaren for the remainder of the 2024 F1 season.
Leclerc claimed his second victory of the season, capitalising on a one-stop strategy to beat McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Before Piastri made his second pit stop, Leclerc was five seconds behind, highlighting that McLaren had the quickest car at Monza.
Ferrari introduced a significant upgrade package for the Italian GP, centred around curing their bouncing woes.
However, speaking in the FIA press conference after the race at Monza, Leclerc has urged Ferrari “to be cautious”.
“We've got to be cautious,” he said. “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 today. 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 one here in Italy.”
Despite a tough run since Monaco, Leclerc trails Norris by just 24 points in the drivers’ championship.
Similarly in the constructors, Ferrari are just 39 points off Red Bull.
But Leclerc has played down expectations, citing similar talk about a championship challenge following his Monaco win.
“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.”
