A pole in Bahrain? Difficult for Leclerc

Last year, Charles Leclerc held the grid record in qualifying: nine poles for the Monegasque, proving on multiple occasions his ability to put everything together on a lap in Q3. At the same Bahrain Grand Prix in 2022, he chained pole and victory, even offering a double to Ferrari for the inaugural meeting of a campaign which turned out to be less successful.

Despite a ratio of only 3 converted poles on Sunday, Leclerc continued to be a beast for his rival Max Verstappen the Saturday. However, the Monegasque is much less confident this season: “I don't think we have the performance for, maybe, a pole, admits Leclerc. But we can be in the game. » 

According to the first glimpses given during the pre-season tests and during the two Free Practice sessions on Friday, the teams seem closer together. Difficult to draw a clear hierarchy between the 2nd and 5th strength on the board. So, on the Ferrari side, we prefer to procrastinate: “As soon as we have a little more difficult races, we will have to stay present and take the opportunities, declares Leclerc. That's what we're going to try to do this weekend. » Frédéric Vasseur, new boss of the Scuderia defectorAlfa Romeo, also added that the “championship would be neither won nor lost in Bahrain”, in the longest season in the history of the Formula 1 (23 Grand Prix).

No need to be alarmist either, the garage in Maranello (Italy) seems to be building its performance little by little. “The feeling [in the car] is better than in the tests, reassures Leclerc. Pre-season testing was a lot less consistent for me because we were testing a lot of things. I didn't have much time to tune the car to my liking, so what I was able to do today is why it went better. » The driver finished 4 tenths off the pace set by Fernando Alonso in the second Free Practice session. In the morning, he placed his SF-23 5th with the only time achieved on medium tires, compared to the soft tires of the rest of the top 10. The team also quickly resolved its extremely mobile rear wing problem and the latency felt by Leclerc on his clutch when leaving the pits.

A potential rise in power of the Vasseur garage? When the start of the 2022 season got off to a flying start, performance had waned over the course of the Grands Prix. Perhaps the dynamic could reverse this year… 

The first oral for Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz will take place from the qualifying session in Bahrain (16 p.m. French time), facing Red Bull who seem above the rest and Aston Martin who could play spoilsport. 

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