Charles Leclerc says Ferrari have made a bigger step over the winter than Formula 1 rivals Red Bull.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix by 22 seconds over teammate Sergio Perez.
But Leclerc is optimistic that the Scuderia have closed the gap over the course of the off-season.
The Monegasque qualified alongside Verstappen on the front row of the grid, finishing just over two tenths adrift.
Leclerc was a place and a tenth further behind the Dutchman at the same event last year.
On race day, he fell back as he wrestled with braking issues that cost him six tenths per lap for a large portion of the Grand Prix.
Teammate Carlos Sainz, however, was able to charge forward unencumbered by issues and he took the final podium place.
Sainz finished only a few seconds adrift of Perez, who ran softer but less durable soft compound tyres in the final stint.
Ferrari were the only team other than Red Bull to win a race last season, with Sainz taking the chequered flag at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Leclerc, meanwhile, is hoping to end a victory drought stretching back to the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari have ‘grown’ more than Red Bull
Speaking to corriere.it, Leclerc said he was ‘confident’ Ferrari would respond this year after the Bulls’ historic dominance in 2023.
He acknowledges that Red Bull still has a clear advantage, but feels that’s inevitable given the scale of their superiority last year.
And the 26-year-old believes that Ferrari have made progress with their SF-24 than Red Bull with have the RB20.
“I am confident, Ferrari has the best chance to recover,” he said. “Compared to 2023 we have made a leap forward, the distance remains because it was large. But looking at the first race, we grew more than they did.”
Fred Vasseur confident of winning multiple races
Leclerc’s comments reflect the strong levels of belief at Maranello right now even after Verstappen’s crushing victory in Sakhir.
Team principal Fred Vasseur has already predicted that the Scuderia will rack up their fair share of pole positions and victories this year.
This weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be a litmus test of the versatility of this year’s cars.
The 3.8-mile Jeddah Corniche Circuit, second only to Monza in Italy when it comes to average speed, is very different to the Bahrain track in profile.
Verstappen has already accepted that he and his team will face a ‘completely’ new challenge in Jeddah.
If Red Bull maintain or increase their margin at the head of the pack, then, it may be an ominous sign of things to come.
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