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Charles Leclerc believes Red Bull are stronger than Ferrari in race conditions after the Miami GP. The Ferrari driver admitted that his team had a lot of improvements to make in terms of tire performance, where they are evidently on the backfoot.
Describing his race in Miami, Leclerc said:
“Yeah, I am disappointed. I think we are very strong in terms of tyre warm ups, so at the beginning of every race we are strong and also after the safety car restart on the hard we were very strong. But after four five laps they (Red Bull) seem to stabilise the tyres in a better window, and there they are just quicker than us so then its very difficult for us to do anything. But yeah its like this and we need to work on that. Its pretty clear what’s going on and hopefully we will get better at it as quickly as possible.”
According to the 2022 championship leader, Red Bull are able to optimize their tires better in race conditions and have the edge over them in performance. While Max Verstappen earned his maiden Grand Slam of the season at Imola, Charles Leclerc had the edge over him in qualifying in Miami.
Starting from pole, the Ferrari driver lost his lead on the ninth lap and was unable to defend against the Red Bull champion. While Red Bull were expected to be stronger on the straights, Ferrari had a significant advantage in the corners. However, the scarlet cars were suffering from severe tire degradation, which cost them significant amounts of performance.
Charles Leclerc believes the 2022 championship will be a long battle
The Ferrari driver believes that the current championship will be a long drawn battle. However, he believes it is vitally important that his team have the upper hand and are able to make up the performance deficit to their rivals soon.
On being asked about the championship momentum, Charles Leclerc said:
“It is going to be a long championship, it seems that they (Red Bull) had the upper hand on two weekends now in race pace especially and we need to take back the upper hand edge as soon as possible.”
While the Monegasque still leads the driver's championship by 19 points, Verstappen is not far away. The Dutchman has now won every race he has finished in the 2022 season. Red Bull have also closed in on Ferrari in the Constructor Standings and it will be critical for the Prancing Horse squad to extend their lead in Barcelona.
