Leclerc sees ‘'potential'’ in new Ferrari F1 upgrade

Charles Leclerc is sure Ferrari is making progress as it looks to move up the Formula 1 pecking order at the Styrian Grand Prix.

Leclerc picked up a surprise podium in the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, benefitting from both Red Bulls hitting trouble and Lewis Hamilton picking up a time penalty.

It’s widely accepted that Ferrari is fifth in the F1 pecking order behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Racing Point and McLaren.

Leclerc believes Ferrari's latest upgrade is a step in the right direction with a bigger update expected for next weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

“I mean I could feel it [the upgrades], then we still have to tune it in order for it to work properly, I think there is potential in it, we need to keep working to find its full potential.

“Definitely a difficult day but on the other hand I think we found a few things on high fuel towards the end of the day, the last run especially, so this is positive, let’s see whether tomorrow or after tomorrow depending on the weather if we are able to gain the lap time we gained on high fuel also on low fuel.”

Ferrari’s main struggles in 2020 appear to be on the straights - a stark contrast to 2019 where it dominated in this area. 

”We are definitely struggling on that and that’s why also the race of last week was so difficult to overtake but we are trying to work as much as possible with what we have got at the moment and hopefully we will change it for the next few races.''