Ferrari was not yet chasing the time in Barcelona

Who had not crowned Ferrari queen of the 2019 winter tests after the promising times signed by the Italian team last year? For what result in Australia? A significant outlay on Mercedes in qualifying, no car on the podium, and more questions than answers. 

Change of atmosphere this season with the opening of the traditional off-season runs in Catalonia. No trace of the SF1000 at the top of the rankings on the first day of testing in Barcelona. Charles Leclerc points to a modest 11th place, 1''313 behind the best time, owned by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. 

Asked about the potential of his new mount, the Monegasque explained on Wednesday evening that Ferrari had not yet sought performance. 

« We've changed our approach quite a bit, last year we clearly took a slap when we arrived in the first race, said Leclerc. We did very well during the winter tests and it was much less good in Australia. For now, we're focusing on exploring and discovering the car before pushing it to its limits. 

In terms of sensations, it's pretty good. Afterwards, it's always difficult to analyze clearly when you're not working on your performance. In any case, it's a problem-free first day, which is always very important. We did a lot of laps and tested a lot of things, some of which were very positive. ». 

For his second campaign in red, the Monegasque recognized that the car offered “ greater flexibility in terms of settings to adapt it to my riding, that's already a good thing. The difference is also made at the level of procedures. After a year, everything is fine ». 

Before completing 131 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Leclerc had experienced a small incident this Wednesday morning when he was pulled out of bed earlier than expected to replace at short notice a Sebastian Vettel suffering. 

« I had planned to get up around 08:15 a.m. to take the pilots' photo but I received a call at 06:45 a.m. to tell me that I was doing the day, said the 22-year-old pilot. This didn't change much in my program. The mechanics had to adjust the position in the car and changed the number on the body. Afterwards, I just did Seb's program and he will do the same tomorrow ».