Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc claims F1 team have upgrades planned for 2nd half of the season to close gap to rivals

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has revealed that the F1 team will bring some upgrades in the second half of the season to make their case for a second-place finish in the championship.

Ferrari have had a rather inconsistent season so far and have only managed three podiums courtesy of Charles Leclerc. They have looked like the second-fastest car only on a few weekends and are yet to reach their potential this year.

Currently P4 in the standings, Leclerc, speaking with RacingNews365, emphasized on their goal of finishing second. He said:

“Well, I think a realistic target, first of all, should be to try and be second in the Constructors which is going to be a challenge. McLaren now is back in the fight; Mercedes is always strong.

“Aston Martin a bit less recently, but I have no doubt that they will come back. So yeah, this is this is our target. We have few upgrades coming a bit later on in the second part of the season, which hopefully will make a difference and will help us achieve these targets.”

Charles Leclerc speaks on the weight problem in F1 cars

The Monegasque driver stated that F1 currently has a weight problem as the current generations of cars are very heavy compared to the previous ones.

He compared his experience of driving the 2003 Ferrari in Abu Dabi to the heavier and bulkier cars of now. But he also recognized that the new cars carry more downforce than the agile old cars.

As per Autosport, Charles Leclerc said:

"I arrived in 2018 and the cars were already quite heavy. I drove a 2003 car in Abu Dhabi with 50 kilos of fuel, but you can definitely feel the difference with today's car. I don't like heavy cars. I think for the agility of the car and for also the slow speed corners, now you can really feel the weight.

"But I have to say that what we are experiencing in medium to high speed with the downforce we have today is incredible compared to 12 or 13 years ago, and this is very impressive. So, I think it's a balance. I wouldn't want to go higher than the weight we have now, that's for sure. But also going very light compromises also the aero that we have because the car is huge, and that produces also a lot more aero compared to 12 years ago."

It is hard to disagree with Charles Leclerc's assessment regarding the weight of the cars but the current generation of F1 cars are the safest that they have ever been.