Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc identifies crucial 'emotional' moment in Maranello turnaround

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Charles Leclerc has highlighted Ferrari’s pivotal improvement in maintaining emotional control throughout the 2024 F1 season, which played a crucial role in their success.

The iconic Maranello team clinched five victories and finished second in the Constructors’ Championship, engaging in a fierce battle with McLaren for the title, which ultimately came down to the final race in Abu Dhabi.

Despite narrowly missing out on the championship, the Italian side had a highly positive 2024 Formula 1 campaign. The Maranello team faced a significant mid-season setback after an aerodynamic upgrade to the SF-24 introduced at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona led to a decline in terms of performance, costing them valuable points during several races while they worked to address the issue. Once the root cause of the problem was identified and fixed, Ferrari bounced back strongly. Charles Leclerc believes that while the mid-season “hole” they fell into may have ultimately cost them the title, he doesn’t feel regretful about what could have been done differently.

“Looking back at it, I am satisfied with the season,” the Monegasque driver said in a recent interview for the morning daily newspaper New York Times. “I think it’s not been very often where I look back and I feel like there’s been very little missed opportunities.” – he pointed out.

“There was a hole of performance after Monaco for two, three races where we had an upgrade that didn’t work properly, and we had to put the car in places that we didn’t want to put it, but we had to learn something out of it. We are in the position we are in now, because we have gone through this stuff for two, three races. So I wouldn’t change that, and I think we did the right choice as a team, so putting everything together, I think it’s been a positive season. I think at the end of the day, we have just missed performance, especially at the beginning of the season, in order to be fighting for better things. But I think in terms of the team maximising what we had, we did a really good job.” – the Ferrari man continued.

Following Ferrari's strong finish to the 2024 Formula 1 season, the legendary red team is widely regarded as one of the top contenders for next year. This label of being a potential favorite was also attached to Ferrari before the start of this season, after a promising conclusion to 2023. However, the Maranello team initially struggled to match the pace of Red Bull, falling short in the early stages of the campaign.

When asked whether Ferrari has something new in store for the winter in order to live up to these high expectations, Charles Leclerc acknowledged the challenge of predicting their performance. He explained, “It's a very difficult question to answer, because Formula 1 is ultimately a relative sport, and we can only truly know the specifics of what we're doing ourselves. I have very good confidence that we are doing everything right at the moment, and as a team, we are a lot more solid. I’m not speaking really much about the technical part of it, that again, everything is relative, and we don’t know if Red Bull or McLaren have been focusing on next year’s car and found something very special for next year’s car. So it is very difficult to say anything on that matter. We are just focusing on ourselves and trying to the best possible job.” – the Monegasque driver added.

Scuderia Ferrari's recovery after a difficult mid-season stretch highlighted a significant shift under the leadership of team principal Frederic Vasseur. Historically, when challenges arose, Ferrari often struggled to recover, but this time, the entire team worked together to overcome the adversity.

Charles Leclerc attributes this change to the fact that the team's mechanics and engineers are no longer as “emotionally affected” by setbacks, which he believes was a major issue in the past due to the emotional weight of the Ferrari brand.

Charles Leclerc explained that the mentality within the team and their approach to work has significantly improved, making them a much more solid and cohesive unit. He acknowledged that Ferrari has always been driven by immense passion, which has motivated everyone to put in extra effort and strive for improvement. However, he pointed out that in the past, the strong emotional connection to the brand often made team members more affected when things went wrong, a phenomenon less apparent in other teams.

The Monegasque emphasized that although the passion remains strong within Ferrari, the team is now far less emotionally influenced by external pressures or internal challenges, a development he considers a very positive step forward.

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