Charles Leclerc hopes Ferrari can continue its run of competitive races at the Japanese Grand Prix for the sake of the team's future success. Ferrari struggled to replicate its early 2022 form with the SF-23 and elected to switch car concepts at the Spanish Grand Prix after it was clear its development avenue would not yield any performance gains. With the focus on 2024, the team has enjoyed an uptake in results, with Carlos Sainz earning poles at the last two races and ending Red Bull's win streak in Singapore. Leclerc was not expecting the team to be competitive at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, having conceded its main strength was at the low downforce circuits. After putting in a lot of work to understand its current car, the Monegasque hopes its form will continue at the twisty Suzuka circuit.
Early warning signs
"I really hope it's possible to reproduce that in Suzuka," he told media including RacingNews365. "I'm really looking forward to seeing it because if we do that, then it's a really good sign for the future." "As I've said in Zandvoort, we've done many tests. "In Monza, we wanted to reconfirm those tests and the understanding we had from the car, from here, we applied everything and it seemed to do a big step forward. "Having said that, Singapore has historically been a very good track for us so we need to wait one more race to see whether we have done a really good step forward consistently, or whether it's one-off." One of the main problems of the SF-23 has been the 'aero peakiness' which has made the car unstable through high-speed corners. Leclerc described how Ferrari has managed to find a compromise in its car setup, but admits that it could make it harder to drive in certain conditions. "I think straight away from the first race [we knew] we've got this unpredictable car," he said. "Because of this unpredictability, we need to be on the safe side balance-wise as we cannot run with a lot of front [grip]. "Then whenever you have a snap [of oversteer], you lose a lot of grip from the car and it's just very difficult to manage. "It's not that it's an understeery car, but you have to put understeer in the car to make it predictable and this is a bit tricky."
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