Leclerc “99 percent sure” Ferrari will struggle more than in 2019

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari is “99 percent sure” it will be worse off in the upcoming 2020 Formula 1 season compared to where it was last year.

Ferrari’s latest challenger - the SF1000 - was off the pace throughout Barcelona pre-season testing in February, leading team boss Mattia Binotto to insist it would start the season behind its rivals.

After evaluating its car’s flaws during winter testing and the subsequent break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferrari has been forced to make a major redesign of its 2020 contender.

The Scuderia is running its pre-season specification originally intended for the cancelled Australian Grand Prix at this weekend’s season-opener in Austria, before it introduces an upgraded package at the Hungarian Grand Prix - the third round of 2020 - later this month.

“I think it is going to be a very challenging season for us, it is definitely not going to be easy,” Leclerc said.

“We still have this question mark, and we still need to wait for qualifying to be absolutely sure of what we say, even though we are 99 percent sure we will be struggling more than last year.

“We were not where we wanted to be [in testing], especially on the qualifying pace.

“Then there’s been this whole situation with the virus, everything was closed, then once it reopened we reanalysed the data with the small amount of time we had.

“I think we decided to make a step back to try and analyse where the issue is coming from to then work on the issues, first to know exactly where it comes from, and that’s where we’re at for the moment, we have tried a different route for Budapest.”

Teammate Sebastian Vettel, who is leaving the Italian outfit once his contract expires at the end of the season, explained it was “clear” that Ferrari was not where it wanted to be in pre-season testing.

“We were excited to go to Australia and see if we were or not [off the pace] and the same goes for here,” the German added.

“The last couple of months have been quite disruptive for everyone in terms of how much time they had to prepare.

“Everyone in the factory is flat-out to try and get everything that we can to the track as soon as possible. It will be very interesting to see where we are this weekend.”