Charles Leclerc took a positive assessment of his 2024 season in an end-of-year interview. The Ferrari driver is even satisfied that his team had to experience more difficult times throughout its season, to progress further at the end of the year.
“Looking back, I’m happy with the season.” Leclerc told the New York Times. “I think it’s rare that I look back and feel like I missed very few opportunities.”
“There was a performance hole after Monaco for two or three races, when we had an evolution that didn't work properly, and we had to put the car in places we didn't want to put it, but we must have learned something from this situation.”
“We are in the position we are in today, because we went through that for two or three races. So I wouldn't change that, and I think we made the right choice as a team, so in Putting it all together, I think it's been a positive season.”
“I think ultimately we lacked the performance, especially early in the season, to fight for better things. But I think the team did a really good job of maximizing what they had .”
However, the Monegasque does not know exactly where Ferrari stands in relation to its direct rivals: “It’s a very difficult question to answer, because at the end of the day, Formula 1 is a relative sport.”
“We can only know what we do ourselves. I am confident that we are doing everything right at the moment and as a team we are much stronger. I'm not really talking about the technical aspect.”
“Because again, everything is relative, and we don't know whether Red Bull or McLaren have focused on next year's car and found something very special for this car. So it's very difficult to say anything about it, we focus on ourselves and try to do the best job we can.”
Leclerc has blind faith in his team, but he explains that the emotional involvement of the Scuderia employees has sometimes been tricky: “I think though that the mentality within the team and the way we work is much better and we are a much stronger team.”
“And I've always said Ferrari is amazing, because there's so much passion within the team, and it's great because everyone is willing to work an extra hour and is really motivated to change things for the better.”
“However, when things go bad, people who work at Ferrari are more affected because they have an emotional attachment to the brand, which is perhaps less the case in other teams.”
“However, I feel like we haven't taken that step. There is certainly still passion, but we are much less emotionally affected by what is happening around the team, which is to my opinion very positive.”
