What are Charles Leclerc and Ferrari’s ambitions this season?

The Monegasque driver and the Italian team are approaching this new season with cautious ambition, aware that the gap with Max Verstappen and Red Bull is still wide. 

Charles Leclerc makes no secret of it. “Red Bull is the benchmark.”  As he approaches this new season, his seventh in motorsport’s premier category and  his sixth at Ferrari, the Monegasque driver wants to be optimistic, but realistic.

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Pre-season testing seems to confirm the strong potential of the new Ferrari SF-24, however the Red Bull car, by Charles Leclerc’s own admission, already seems to be the absolute reference, as in previous years.

Promising winter tests

“They have a very, very good car again this year,” he told Canal+. “So far, everything is going according to plan (for the Scuderia Ferrari), in the sense that there are no nasty surprises in terms of the car’s handling. It handles like in the simulator, so that’s a pretty good sign. It’s too early to talk about its competitiveness. But we’re making good progress.”

With a new long-term contract and restated ambitions, Charles Leclerc is more than ever a man with a mission at Scuderia Ferrari: to take the team back to the top in Formula 1.

But with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s much heralded arrival at Ferrari next year, the Monegasque driver and tifosis’ darling needs to score points this year to establish himself as the leader in the Maranello firm.

Often among the fastest, if not THE fastest in qualifying, Charles Leclerc will need to replicate his one-lap domination over the whole race.

A well-designed Ferrari SF-24

Although he took 5 pole positions and 6 podiums last season, Leclerc also had all sorts of mechanical problems and DNFs, leaving it to his teammate Carlos Sainz to win in Singapore, the only race Red Bull did not dominate in 2023.

So while the title would appear to be something of an impossible dream, Charles Leclerc will be looking to get back on top of the podium this year, as often as possible. His last victory was on July 10, 2022 at the Austrian GP in Spielberg.  An eternity for a driver of his calibre.

Still under the guidance of Frédéric Vasseur, who has sparked a minor revolution in Maranello since his arrival last season, the Scuderia Ferrari hopes to be back in winning ways, on the way to challenging for the constructors’ grail in 2026, when the new engine regulations come in.

With a 95% remodelled SF-24 that already seems more promising than the ill-fated SF-23, even if it was the only car to have managed to win a 2023 Grand Prix apart from Red Bull, the Italian team seems in a better position, along with Mercedes and McLaren, to challenge the world champion team this year.

Definitely on the up, the Scuderia Ferrari is perhaps not ready to aim for a title yet, but seems to have what it takes to finish vice-champion, not only in the constructors’ championship, but also the drivers’ through Charles Leclerc, as in 2022. While waiting for the much anticipated arrival of Lewis Hamilton next season..