Leclerc: Ferrari fightback in Monaco "not going to be easy"

Charles Leclerc says it will not be easy for Ferrari to turn things around and beat Formula 1 rivals Mercedes at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Ferrari trails Mercedes by nearly 100 points in the constructors’ championship after watching the German manufacturer record five straight one-two finishes, while the Italian squad is yet to take a win so far in 2019.

Ferrari’s 2019 F1 car appeared to lose significant time compared to Mercedes’ W10 in the slow speed final sector in Barcelona throughout the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, and Leclerc fears a repeat is likely around the tight, twisty streets of Monte Carlo.

“My home Grand Prix is always a very special weekend,” Leclerc said.

“Even more this weekend obviously coming here in full red with Ferrari with also a chance to have a very good result, so we’ll push.

“Obviously we had a difficult start of the season. Low speed corners weren’t great in Barcelona but normally Monaco is pretty different. We’ll try to turn things around, it’s not going to be easy but we’ll give it everything.”

Team principal Mattia Binotto said Ferrari was already working on “new concepts” to help cure the issues it has faced with its complex SF90 challenger after making progress during the post-Spanish Grand Prix test.

Leclerc believes Ferrari has “understood a few things” following the test but does not think it will be enough to get the better of Mercedes this weekend.

“I think during testing we understood a few things,” he explained. “Not enough obviously to be at the level of Mercedes but we understand a few things.

“We gained a little bit of time, not enough, we need to keep working and try and understand what’s the main issue but the engineers are working on that.”

Asked how the atmosphere is within the team, Leclerc replied; “I think it’s quite calm, we are all working extremely hard.

“Obviously the engineers are trying to understand and trying to push the team forward but overall I think we are all quite calm which is needed.

“We obviously want to improve so everyone is pushing very hard as I said but I think the most important is that the serenity in the team doesn’t change, which it doesn’t for now.”