Leclerc admits Ferrari have been ‘pushing like crazy’ to deliver power unit update in Austria

Charles Leclerc has offered his thoughts on Ferrari’s chances at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, with the Monegasque anticipating a return to the podium as the team prepare to introduce an upgraded power unit.

After a strong start to the season, Leclerc has endured a dire run over the last two rounds due to mechanical problems. At his home event in Monaco, brake issues saw him end the race in the wall, and his Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix was cut short by a power steering failure.

His team mate Lewis Hamilton has contrastingly shown Ferrari’s progress in closing the gap to Mercedes, with P2 in the Principality and a spectacular victory last time out giving Leclerc hope that he can bounce back, especially with the latest upgrade.

“First of all, the team is doing an incredible job in pushing like crazy on every single component of the car,” he said ahead of the action at the Red Bull Ring. “There’s the development of these pieces, but there is also the production of these pieces and everybody is just pushing to the maximum.

“I think this is the result of it. How much of a difference it will make is a bit more of a difficult answer to get, but surely it goes in the right direction. Mercedes have got a big advantage so that’s not the only thing we need.

“Everybody is aware and we’ll push to the maximum but anything we can take is a very big positive. I hope that the team will be rewarded, just like in Barcelona, with another win on Sunday.”

Falling under the ‘ADUO’ (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) allowance, the Scuderia’s new power unit could help them reduce Mercedes’ performance advantage and create opportunities to compete for wins more consistently.

Prompted on whether it could make his team the favourites for this weekend, Leclerc responded: “I don’t think so. There are quite a few straight lines here and they’re quite long as well.

"I still believe that Mercedes have got the stronger power unit so I think they’ll get back a little bit of the advantage that they had before.

“Let’s wait and see. I hope we are closer than previously, than Barcelona, and we’ll see how it goes. I think we can be in the mix, especially in the race. I think in Qualifying we might be a bit more on the back foot.”

Any return to the top-three in the Grand Prix will be a welcome one as Leclerc has not finished on the podium since the Miami Sprint, leaving him with a 40-point deficit to his team mate.

“I’m looking forward to just having a clean weekend,” he said. “I think Montreal and Monaco have been difficult because the feeling just was not there, then we changed a few things for Barcelona and it was back there. The feeling is there which is a good thing.

“On the other hand, the last two weekends there were no points on the Sunday for mechanical issues so I just hope we get back to where we should be.

“Lewis has done an incredible job and the team have been pushing massively on new parts, so I’m really looking forward to hopefully being back on the podium, if not more from this weekend.”