Charles Leclerc hopeful Ferrari can ‘close the gap’ with new parts as he sets out expectations for Bahrain Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc is confident that Ferrari can close the gap to their rivals in the races ahead, with the Monegasque hopeful that new parts arriving on the car in Bahrain can contribute towards the “significant step” needed to move nearer to their competitors.

The Scuderia currently sit in fourth place of the Teams’ standings after struggling to match the pace shown by the likes of McLaren and Mercedes across the opening three rounds of the campaign, while a double disqualification for Leclerc and team mate Lewis Hamilton in China further dented their points tally.

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However, with the SF-25 set to feature new components this weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Leclerc is optimistic that the outfit can start to close the gap, though the 27-year-old acknowledged that this step will not be enough alone.

“We’ve got some new bits on the car coming [this weekend], which I hope will help us to close that gap a little bit,” Leclerc explained during Thursday’s media day. “Whether it will be enough to close the complete gap I don’t think so, I don’t think there’s that in what we’re bringing here.

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 04: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 on — The SF-25 will be running new components during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend

“I hope it will help us to be closer but it’s still quite a significant step. In Suzuka I think that this was the gap that there is between McLaren and ourselves which is three-tenths, and we need to work very hard in order to catch that.

“I’m confident that we can close that gap, whether again what we are bringing here I don’t think will be enough but hopefully short-term we will have other things which will help us to be closer.”

Asked for his prediction of where Ferrari will be with the new parts onboard, Leclerc played down the possibility of any great leaps as he responded: “I think we are going to be where we were before more or less.

“Hopefully the gap will be a bit smaller, but I don’t think it’s enough to be able to be at the level of McLaren and Max [Verstappen] this weekend, but little by little hopefully we can close that gap a bit more.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 10: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari walks in the — Hamilton has scored 15 points so far during his debut campaign for Ferrari

“That’s obviously the target, but around third or fourth best team is where we are standing at the moment.”

Looking ahead to the event in Sakhir, Hamilton echoed Leclerc’s sentiments as he voiced his optimism about the new components, with the seven-time World Champion commenting: “We’ve got an upgrade this weekend, so I’m excited [that] we’re going to hopefully have a bit more downforce.

“I’m not really feeling a huge amount of issues. We lack overall performance at the moment pace-wise, which we’ll hopefully take a step [with] this weekend.”

Hamilton also said of his expectations for Round 4 of the championship: “I’ve done quite a bit of driving since the [pre-season] test that we had here, so I should be a lot more comfortable in the car than I was through testing here.

“We’ve got an upgrade and got a better understanding of the set-up, so hopefully it should bode well for a better weekend.”