The F1® Insider: Good memories drive Ferrari forwards
Friday, 31 March 2023
Charles Leclerc finished second on a rain-affected Friday at Albert Park that came with plenty of caveats, but context means little for a team that has languished since Melbourne 12 months ago.
As the sun beat down on the Albert Park podium, Charles Leclerc allowed himself to look skywards and take a deep, satisfied breath. And with good reason.
The 2022 F1® campaign was all of three races old, but Leclerc had already achieved a first. The Monegasque had two wins to his name, but this one was something else; pole, leading every lap, setting the fastest lap and cruising to the line by over 20 seconds after his nearest challenger, Max Verstappen, had crawled to a smoky halt trying in vain to hunt him down. Things could hardly be better, right?
Wrong. As it turned out, Australia 2022 was the beginning of the end of Ferrari's season that had potential to end a 15-year title drought, but finished with a whimper. Leclerc – 46 points ahead of Verstappen in the title chase after Melbourne – finished 146 points adrift of the Dutchman come season's end. Leclerc has won one Grand Prix since last April in Melbourne; Red Bull Racing has won 18 of the past 21 races, and 12 of 13 dating back to last year's French Grand Prix in July.
For Leclerc and Ferrari, that's the bad news; the good is that the team immediately gets a lift when it returns to Australian shores each year. It's easy to see why. Nobody does winning in Melbourne quite like Ferrari – nine of the 25 races at Albert Park have finished with Il Canto degli Italiani being played over the loudspeakers – and while Ferrari's 2023 season began on the back foot in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Friday at Albert Park showed some green shoots of a resurgence for the red team.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso continued his 2023 revival tour with the fastest time of Friday (1min 18.887secs), but Leclerc was four-tenths of a second adrift in second place before drizzle rendered the final 40 minutes of the second practice session largely irrelevant.
Yes, it's a position with comes with a caveat – Verstappen's one chance at a representative lap on soft tyres evaporated with a lurid slide at Turn 1 as the track became slick – but for a team in need of good news, it was a step in the right direction given Ferrari's deficit in the opening two rounds in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Leclerc qualified third in Bahrain and second in Saudi Arabia before being demoted 10 places for an engine component change, indicating there's nothing wrong with Ferrari's one-lap pace. But maximising race runs – while mitigating tyre degradation – has proven to be a bridge too far to date, something Leclerc acknowledges.
"I don't think there will be any miracles for this weekend," Leclerc admitted.
"We know we have a lot of work to do, but we also have a clear idea of what is needed. The car is competitive in qualifying … in the race, we lose performance."
Even in a down time, reflecting on that magical April Sunday 12 months ago in Melbourne raises a smile for Leclerc, and only serves as motivation to get back to those high points again.
"Last year's are good memories – everybody was really happy," he said.
"But again, we are fully motivated to be back in the front. We know where we need to work on.
"For this year, we are not coming into this race in the same situation as we were last year, I think. Clearly our performance is not as good as last year – but we are working massively to try and come back."
The chances of Ferrari making it four wins in five years at Albert Park on Sunday look slender. But if the team can make progress towards the front this weekend after the disappointment of Sakhir and Jeddah, that will be akin to a small victory – if not one that's likely to be celebrated with gusto and that iconic anthem.
