Leclerc outlines Ferrari race pace fears against "very strong" Mercedes

Charles Leclerc says Mercedes currently looks to be “a step ahead” of the rest of the Formula 1 field at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri set the headline lap time for McLaren on the first day of competitive running during Friday practice in Melbourne as he finished 0.214 seconds quicker than the Mercedes duo headed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

But Leclerc, who led a Ferrari one-two in first practice, is convinced Mercedes is emerging as the team to beat at the opening round.

“FP1 was good, FP2, Mercedes was slowly showing a bit more of what they have and we are starting to see where we are lacking compared to them,” Leclerc said in response to a question from Crash.net. 

“I think they are clearly very strong, especially in terms of race pace. I don’t know how much margin they still have in qualifying pace but in the race pace, they seem to be very strong compared to us.

“So a lot of work but I don’t really focus on that. We’ve got plenty of things to improve on our car. In FP2 I tried something quite aggressive which didn’t out, so I’ll be back tomorrow in a more reasonable window and we’ll see how it looks like.”

Mercedes has been repeatedly labelled as the pre-season championship favourites throughout the winter but the team has continually downplayed that tag.

However, Leclerc believes Mercedes has underlined its billing, pointing to the impressive pace demonstrated during the race-distance runs completed in FP2.

“In the race pace they were very impressive,” Leclerc said of Mercedes. “In terms of qualifying pace, it’s difficult to know how much more there is to come.

“Oscar did a very impressive lap but I don’t know also what they are doing between the cars, because maybe they are testing different things between the cars because Lando was quite far back.

“Again, it’s the first race of completely new cars, so lots of question marks. On the long run I’d say you have a bit of a better picture of what’s going on with the performances of everyone so far.

“I hope I’m wrong and that we are much faster tomorrow, but at the moment it seems to be Mercedes a step ahead then Red Bull, McLaren and ourselves after.”

Leclerc admitted he is still learning how to get the best out of Ferrari’s new challenger.

“There’s still some work to do as I’ve always said, Melbourne and Shanghai are probably the two hardest tracks for me all season and I always struggle quite a bit, so it’s a challenge,” he said.

“But it shouldn’t be an excuse. I enjoy that challenge and I will work hard to turn that situation around tomorrow.”