Leclerc saw Ferrari make important move: 'We understand our car better now'

The tracks in Monza and Singapore are very different, yet Ferrari was competitive at both. What does that mean for the upcoming F1 race at Suzuka Circuit? "It's very difficult to predict any team's performance this year because it's just varying so much from track to track. We did not expect Red Bull to struggle that much in Singapore, we did not expect us to be that quick in Singapore," Leclerc begins.

He continued: "I hope the surprise will be a good surprise for us this weekend. However, I think we expect Red Bull to be obviously in front and then to be a close fight with McLaren and Mercedes. It's been the case for the whole year, and every hundredth makes a difference. So it's very difficult to predict for now whether we'll be in front or behind, but we'll do our best to be the best of the rest."

Leclerc saw Ferrari take important step

Something Ferrari mainly struggled with in the first half of the season was consistency. The SF-23's performance was shaky, but Leclerc believes his team took an important step after the summer break. "One thing that we did find in Zandvoort is that we have a good understanding of our car now," the Monegasque explained.

"In Zandvoort, we did quite a lot of tests and it's been super useful for the whole team in the two or three weekends after that in order to understand a bit more of our package," he continued. "That is crucial for the future developments especially. Then for the short term, I don't think that will help us to fight for wins all the time, but at least we'll be able to maximise a bit more of our package, which should be good."