Leclerc's revelation about driving style tweak - and verdict on Ferrari's floor

While teammate Carlos Sainz has claimed the last two pole positions on offer and ended Red Bull’s winning streak last time out in Singapore, Leclerc has been slightly off the pace of his teammate. 

The Monegasque admitted that he has not at one with the SF-23 since Ferrari made changes to make the car’s handling more predictable. 

But Leclerc said he feels more comfortable in the cockpit after Friday practice for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. 

“Today was a little bit better,” he said. “The last two or three races, I’ve always struggled a little bit with the balance of the car. 

“Today I changed a little bit my driving style, went with the car a bit in my direction too, and it feels that the feeling is better.

“But obviously it’s only one day, so we need to keep pushing and hopefully do another step forward tomorrow.”

Ferrari have brought a new floor to Japan in a bid to boost their car’s efficiency. Leclerc debuted it across both FP1 and FP2, while Sainz got to try it out on Friday afternoon. 

“It did what we expected it to do,” Leclerc explained. 

“It gave us a little bit of consistency, which was good to see. I don’t think there was a lot of performance in it, but let’s wait and see.”

Leclerc ended Friday just 0.320s off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and has taken encouragement from Ferrari’s early competitiveness in Japan. 

“Obviously we keep learning about this car,” he said. “The last two or three races we learned a lot and now it’s about putting all of it together, which we did in Singapore.

“We need to do that here too. Red Bull seem to be extremely quick this weekend, but I don’t think we are so far off.”