Charles Leclerc: We had a solid race, but speed is missing

A lot of attention before the last race was attracted by Charles Leclerc, a famous Monegasque from whom Ferrari managers have high expectations.

Charles Leclerc described the race for the Japanese Grand Prix as quite good in terms of extracting performance from his car, but the team from Maranello cannot be satisfied with the fourth place at the end of the race, considering the announcements from the beginning of the season, aiming for the very top and winning the title.

Leclerc "defended" the fourth place in the qualification excellently during the entire race, and the duo from Mercedes led by Russell behind him did not find a way past the driver from Monaco, even though the Mercedes car seemed to be faster.

"The feeling in the car was finally good and that's something we can take as a positive for the rest of the season. However, that's not something I can be particularly happy about because it's clear that we don't want to fight for fourth place in the standings. When we look at the whole weekend, both qualifying and the race, we see that we're two or three tenths of a second behind the leading teams and that's what's worrying.

In my opinion, the gap is such that we can catch up during the season, and even before the season I stressed that with any start to the season we would have to be very focused in the rest because this is a long race that lasts almost until the end of the year. We're not happy with the opening part of the season, but that's how it is for now."

Leclerc shares his views

The young driver, on the other hand, draws some positive things, believing that the Italian team has the potential to do great things in the rest of the season. His focus is on improving the car, considering that this is the foundation of success. If they really succeed in that, there's no doubt that they have a bright future ahead of them.

"We have to be satisfied that we maximized today's result, but not with where we finished because we are not aiming for fourth places. I know that a lot of work is being done in Maranello to improve the car as soon as possible for the continuation of the season and that should motivate us. I sincerely hope that we will already look better and have more performance in Bahrain, and I will certainly change the way I drive compared to the pre-season tests in order to get the most out of the car," concluded Leclerc.