Leclerc not setting ‘particular target’ for Ferrari F1 debut

Ferrari newcomer Charles Leclerc says he has not set any “particular target” for his race debut with the team at the Australian Grand Prix. 

The 21-year-old Monegasque has moved to partner Sebastian Vettel in Ferrari’s revised driver line-up for the upcoming campaign after his impressive rookie season with Sauber in 2018. 

Ferrari has been billed as the early favourites by its closest rivals Mercedes and Red Bull following a strong fortnight of winter testing, but Leclerc insists he is not getting carried away ahead of next weekend’s season-opener in Melbourne. 

Asked what his personal goal is for Melbourne and whether he is nervous ahead of his first race for Ferrari, Leclerc replied: “[I’m] not nervous. 

“Obviously the aim is to do the best job possible. I think we’ve done a good job during the tests. The road is still long and to start a new adventure with a new team always takes a bit of time. But I hope to be as ready as possible. 

“I will train hard just before Australia physically and try to be sure to be at my best mentally also to try and do the best result possible. But in terms of result, I don’t have any particular target.” 

Leclerc, who got within 0.01s of Vettel’s headline lap time from pre-season testing, is expecting to learn a lot from the four-time world champion. 

“I can learn from him [Vettel] a lot,” Leclerc explained. “It’s difficult to go into details because it’s very small things, a little bit everywhere.

“How he works with the team – Ferrari is a big team with many people. I still need to get used to so many people and yeah just the way he works with the team and his feedback is also extremely good so these things I can definitely learn from him.

“When I’m in the car I try to take off all the emotions of my mind which I think is extremely important to be fully focused on the job,” he added. 

“At the end when I’m in the car I’m just here to do the job I have to do and I’m 100 percent focused on how I drive the car and not on what car I’m driving.”