Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Red Bull Ring, 2019

Leclerc: New set-up philosophy key to Ferrari breakthrough

2019 Austrian Grand Prix

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Charles Leclerc says a change in set-up philosophy at Ferrari was behind his run to pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix.

While Ferrari have enjoyed good straight-line speed all season, the SF90s were stronger than usual in the quick corners at the Red Bull Ring today. Leclerc gave the team their third pole position of the season so far, and credited changes the team has made since the last race.

“Our main issue in the last few grands prix was the front,” he said. “We don’t have enough front. I think this weekend it was quite a bit better.

“We tried a different set-up philosophy and it seems to be a bit better. It doesn’t mean that we’ll do a big step up for the other races but for here it worked pretty well.

“I think the most time gained in the second sector is because of the stronger performance compared to the last grand prix.”

Leclerc has also said he’s raised his game in qualifying recently. “[I’ve] just to be a little bit more step-by-step during the qualifying sessions,” he explained.

“I probably over-pushed [before] and then on the set-up side tried to anticipate the track evolution which is quite a big factor now in Formula 1. So just these two and I suddenly found quite a bit of time.”

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3 comments on “Leclerc: New set-up philosophy key to Ferrari breakthrough”

  1. Wow, this fast already, while still learning Rookie stuff. Imagine his speed in a few years.

    1. Rooting him for next year’s WDC. Ferrari got the best PU package, after they fixed the cornering deficits that car will dominates everywhere.

  2. How candid. We’ve noticed sometime ago that the Ferrari has no front end and is a bit soft and lazy, great to hear this confirmed and that the team and charles who’s a clever guy address this issue. Ferrari were indeed surprisingly quick on the quick corners s2 and s3, still I feel that Mercedes pu worries are holding them back, nevertheless watching Lewis 2nd run I thought he had pole in the bag with purple 2nd and 3rd sectors, Charles responded though.

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