Does Leclerc's podium predict Ferrari's future? 'At Silverstone this again'
F1 News
For Ferrari, it must have felt like a relief. Eight Grands Prix had been run, only once did the Italian team manage to reach the podium this season. In Austria, it finally added a second visit to the podium: Charles Leclerc achieved the best result of the season for Ferrari with his second place behind winner Max Verstappen.
So a smile was on Leclerc's face. "It feels good to be back on the podium, especially after what was a very difficult day yesterday. I had a really good feeling in the car on Friday. I think with the new upgrades, the feeling is getting there. We were really waiting for this race in order to confirm the good feelings we had on Friday and it worked out. No secrets, we need to work still extremely hard to catch up to Red Bull, who are still quite a lot faster coming race day. But the feeling is better and the team is pushing like I've never seen before in terms of bringing the upgrades much earlier than what was planned and this is great to see." Leclerc said in the post-race press conference.
'Ferrari better balanced'
Ferrari takes upgrades almost every race. Leclerc let it be known on Friday that he did not want to judge whether these worked out well until after the Grand Prix had been run. So after his second place the question followed again: 'Were the upgrades a success?' Leclerc responded at the press conference: "Overall, we had a more consistent car today, which was good to see. I feel like, like Max was saying, with these sprint weekends it's a bit more unpredictable, less preparation you have and maybe I was a bit out the window in terms of setup for this race. I had the rear stepping out a bit too much and struggling with rear degradation. But on the second and last stint, I was able to get a bit more out of it. I was able to get a bit more out of my driving but maybe we left a bit more of performance there."
Two podiums is still (too) little for a team like Ferrari. At Silverstone in a week's time, the team wants to shine again. "This is the target, if not doing better. It is a very different track in Silverstone and it's going to be very interesting to see where we are there because I feel like maybe the weakness of the car now is still a little bit the high-speed corners and in Silverstone there are lots of high-speed. So it will be good to see if this new package helps."