Leclerc Downplays Ferrari Upgrade Gains Despite Friday Practice
- Ferrari debuted a new floor upgrade during practice on Friday, ahead of the weekend, though Charles Leclerc downplayed immediate expectations regarding the performance shift.
- Leclerc finished Friday running with the newly configured floor on his Ferrari car, which introduces a small step forward.
- It felt good but it is not the gain I have seen or heard about.
Ferrari debuted a new floor upgrade during practice on Friday, ahead of the weekend, though Charles Leclerc downplayed immediate expectations regarding the performance shift.
Leclerc Evaluates Floor Upgrade and Track Bumps
Leclerc finished Friday running with the newly configured floor on his Ferrari car, which introduces a small step forward. Leclerc noted that the changes produced minor improvements rather than massive gains during the opening sessions.
It felt good but it is not the gain I have seen or heard about. It is small gains but we could still see them on the car. It is a small step forward and we started the weekend on the right foot with a good balance and that is the outstanding thing with this Friday.
Charles Leclerc
The Ferrari driver also echoed complaints raised by Max Verstappen on Thursday regarding the physical condition of the racing circuit. Leclerc described the opening sector as particularly poor and very bumpy.
McLaren Struggles With Handling Despite Updates
McLaren rolled out the first of three consecutive planned upgrades this weekend, but Lando Norris expressed frustration with the handling of his car. Norris finished seventh fastest overall after failing to set a time on his qualifying simulation run on soft tyres following a mistake at Turn 16.
Telemetry showed Norris holding an advantage on long runs, averaging about 0.2secs faster than Verstappen, though that comparison is complicated by McLaren running the hard tyre compound. Despite the raw pace, Norris found the car difficult to manage consistently.
Difficult. The pace is not bad. We seem a step away from Red Bull and Ferrari, probably Mercedes as well, but the car is very difficult to drive, too difficult to be consistent and get a nice feeling consistently.
Lando Norris
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri ended the session eighth quickest, placing ahead of Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar and Haas driver Oliver Bearman.
Competitive Tightening Before Saturday Qualifying
Leclerc pointed out that rival teams appeared to extract significantly more performance between Friday practice and upcoming sessions, leaving Ferrari with a tight margin to defend.
It has been a very clean Friday for me, but the others seem to be gaining more than us from Friday to Saturday and seeing the little gap there is, it is not going to be so easy tomorrow.
Charles Leclerc