Leclerc offers honest assessment of where Ferrari stand midway through 2024 as he urges team to bring upgrades ‘as soon as possible’

Charles Leclerc has called on Ferrari to bring more upgrades “as soon as possible” after the summer break, with the Monegasque believing that Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes all have stronger cars at this stage of the season.

Ferrari enjoyed a competitive start to 2024 after recording podium finishes at seven of the first eight races, including victory for Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix – where the outfit finished one-two – and a home win for Leclerc in Monaco.

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But upgrades unleashed in Spain – focused on the floor of the SF-24 – triggered the return of bouncing at high speed, which led to a challenging phase of races as the team carried out several tests and introduced temporary solutions.

Ferrari appeared to make progress last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, where Leclerc qualified second in wet conditions, which became pole position when Max Verstappen served a grid penalty, and then converted it into a solid P4 finish, which turned into a podium thanks to George Russell’s disqualification.

But speaking post-race, Leclerc gave a frank assessment of where Ferrari stand after 14 of 24 scheduled rounds and discussed what’s needed for the races to come if they are to fight for the big prizes once more and improve on their current championship position of P3.

“I feel like we are the fourth-fastest car at the moment,” he stated. “I mean, the first part of the year for us was, for the first half, pretty positive; the second half struggling a bit more, trying to fix the issues.

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“We are just going to try and recharge our batteries during the break, come back, try and analyse, and hopefully bring new parts as soon as possible on the car to be challenging for wins again.”

Earlier in the Belgium weekend, team boss Frederic Vasseur shared his own review of Ferrari’s season so far, with the Frenchman arguing that the squad are in a better position compared to the same point last year.

While the Scuderia sit third in the constructors’ standings, behind Red Bull and McLaren, they have scored 345 points compared to the 228 amassed across 14 races in 2023, as well as those two aforementioned wins compared to zero.

“First, overall, it’s a much better start than 12 months ago,” said Vasseur. “It was a bit up and down. We had a good sequence and a bit more difficult sequence, but the most important [thing] is to score the points that you can score.”

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Asked if Ferrari now have a handle on their recent updates, and what it will take to get back on terms with their rivals, he added: “For sure we have a good understanding of this, but it will be true until the end of the season. I think Red Bull had a tough period also, but it looks [like] they are back.

“It will be like this until the end. It means that the most important [thing] is to do the best with what you have every single race, and to be focused on this one, not to draw conclusions for the rest of the season.”