Leclerc on Ferrari woes: 'Feels like we've had two parts of the season'

Charles Leclerc says he felt much more "at ease" with his Ferrari after the Japanese Grand Prix.

Both drivers have struggled to manage the aero 'peakiness' of the SF-23 throughout the 2023 season which made the car unstable in high speed corners, with Leclerc conceding that they struggled mostly at low downforce circuits.

The team went on to produce an unexpected result in Singapore, after Carlos Sainz became the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race this year.

After a lapse in form following the summer break, Leclerc subsequently improved following a pivotal race weekend at Suzuka when he challenged for podiums at Mexico, Abu Dhabi, and even the win at Las Vegas.

"I think we've had two parts of the season: we've had pre-Japan and post-Japan at least on my side. I feel much more at ease with the car since Japan," he told media, including RacingNews365.

Leclerc: There is still a lot of work to do

The aero peakiness issues have made it difficult to know about the constant base from session to session for Ferrari, but Leclerc says the team did a lot of work to understand how this occurs.

"We've worked on the consistency of the car in different conditions which helped a lot my driving style which I like quite a lot to have an oversteery car and a strong front, which in the first part of the season I couldn't quite do that," he explained.

"There's still a lot of work to do because especially into the race, with the tyres, everything depends on details that we need to get everything right and at the moment our car is not good enough and not consistent enough, especially on long runs so we are working on that."