Charles Leclerc redirects Ferrari 'focus' after F1 test statement

Charles Leclerc has called for calm over Ferrari's rapid pace during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Friday marked the final day of testing for the F1 teams ahead of the new season, which kicks off in two weeks at the Australian Grand Prix.

While testing times mean little when establishing the pecking order for the year ahead, Ferrari caught the attention of the paddock on the final day when it strapped a set of C4 tyres onto Leclerc's car in the last half hour of running.

Leclerc became the only driver to dip into the 1:31s and was almost one second ahead of the rest of the competition.  

With 132 laps to his name, it was undoubtedly a highly successful end to the week for Ferrari.

“The test day was very smooth, we ran through our programme and tested all the things we planned to,” Leclerc said.

“In terms of performance, it’s still difficult to understand where we really stand because teams are hiding their true form.”

Ferrari enter the year looking to end its title drought, which currently stretches back to the 2008 campaign.

But after ending the test period on a high, Leclerc asserted he is not getting drawn into the lure of a promising lap time. 

“It’s important not to focus too much on lap times and prepare for the first race,” he said.

“We will build step by step and try to understand how to extract the maximum from our car.

“We have a lot of data to analyse before we arrive in Melbourne and we will see how things go once we are there.”