"We need to put a Ferrari so it’s then five seconds quicker" – Charles Leclerc and George Russell's banter over slow safety car at 2022 F1 Australian GP

Charles Leclerc and George Russell engaged in a bit of F1 banter over the pace of the safety car at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix. Both drivers appeared on the podium, with Leclerc taking the win and Russell finishing in P3.

The two drivers attended the post-race press conference together, sharing their opinions on the safety car restarts. Charles Leclerc and George Russell joked about the speed of the Mercedes AMG safety car versus the Aston Martin Vantage. The Briton claimed that there wouldn't be an issue of slow-moving safety cars if Albert Park saw the Mercedes AMG car instead of the Aston Martin due to the former's higher speed. Russell said:

“We don’t have the issue with the Mercedes AMG safety car. On a serious note, the Mercedes AMG is like five seconds a lot quicker than the Aston Martin safety car, which is pretty substantial.”

Charles Leclerc cheekily replied saying a Ferrari safety car would be even faster than the Mercedes. He said:

“We need to put a Ferrari so it’s then five seconds quicker.”

The Monegasque driver leads the drivers' standings with 71 points. He is surprisingly followed by Russell with 37 points after three races in the 2022 F1 season.

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Charles Leclerc claims it was hard to keep tires warm behind safety car

The Monegasque driver started the race in pole position and took the victory, while also setting the fastest lap - proving his dominance in the Ferrari F1-75. Reigning world champion Max Verstappen, however, did manage to harass the 24-year-old at one of the safety car restarts. The Dutchman put his Red Bull all over the back of the Ferrari after Charles Leclerc struggled to keep his hard compound tires warm enough while behind the safety car. Unfortunately, Verstappen was eventually forced to retire on lap 37 due to a yet unknown failure.

Leclerc revealed in the post-race press conference that he realized that the safety car was going as fast as it possibly could without crashing out. He said:

“To be honest it always feels too slow in the car because with those Formula 1 cars, we have so much grip and it’s very, very difficult, especially on the compound we were all on, which was the hards. I was struggling massively to put some temperature in them so I also struggled. Then, to be honest, I wanted to complain, but then I checked how much the safety car was sliding in the corner and I don’t think there was anything more that he could give so I didn’t want to push too much pressure. And yeah, it’s the way it is. But yeah, for sure with the cars that we have now it’s very difficult to keep the temperatures in the tires behind the safety car.”

With Ferrari being 2022's best team by a big margin so far, only time will tell whether or not the rest of the field can catch up.