Charles Leclair: We still have a chance for a successful season.
At the FIA press conference in Suzuka, Charles Leclair commented on the disqualification of Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix and assured that the team had drawn conclusions. Speaking about the prospects of the Scuderia in Japan, Charles suggested that the team will be in the same shape as in the first two races.
Charles Leclair: "We are sure that this will not happen here, because we are learning from our mistakes. The mistake at the last stage cost us dearly – we acted at the limit of the permissible, but in the case of both cars this limit was violated. The disqualification hurt us – the team doesn't need that at all.
The first two stages of the season turned out to be very difficult, and the pace of the car was not at all what we expected. We lost even more points due to the disqualification, but I'm sure the team has made its conclusions.
When such situations occur, we try to analyze them in order to understand where the mistake was made and make adjustments to the work. Several factors at once influenced the fact that the weight reserve of the car, which we left, turned out to be insufficient.
It's always difficult to get the most out of the car, and I don't think it's any harder for us to do that this season. We don't have enough speed, especially with McLaren, so I would focus on that. But I am sure that we will reduce the gap step by step. Hopefully, we'll start this weekend.
We saw a big step forward in the sprint in China, especially with the example of Lewis. But on Sunday we returned to our usual form, and I expect that in Suzuka we will be more or less in the same positions as we were on Sunday in China and in Melbourne.
Last year, at the beginning of the season, we looked much worse in terms of speed than we are now, but in the end we were able to fight for the title. We understand that we did not achieve the maximum possible in the first races of the season, and this is disappointing, but it does not mean that we will not be able to recover.
There are still a lot of races ahead, so we need to move forward step by step. We still have a chance for a successful season."
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Charles Leclair: We still have a chance for a successful season.
At the FIA press conference in Suzuka, Charles Leclair commented on the disqualification of Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix.