In Saudi Arabia, Charles Leclerc clinched his first podium of the season, but he acknowledged a significant advantage that Red Bull had over Ferrari in Jeddah. Leclerc pointed out Ferrari’s struggle with tyre warm-up as a key factor hindering their ability to challenge Red Bull in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Despite qualifying second and standing between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the grid, Leclerc managed to maintain his position ahead of Perez initially. However, Perez eventually overtook the Monegasque driver, securing a second consecutive one-two finish for the reigning World Champions.
Throughout the race, Leclerc found himself comfortably leading the midfield pack, ultimately securing a lonely third place. He attributed Red Bull’s success to their adept utilization of the Pirelli Hard tyres, which played a crucial role in a race known for its traditionally low tyre degradation.
“The DRS, I don’t think that’s where we are lacking at the moment,” Leclerc said after his first podium of the season.
“But of course we’ll have a further analysis after this weekend to understand exactly what are still our weaknesses and try to update them since last race.
“However, I don’t think tyre degradation was a thing. It was more about tyre warm-up and we struggled a bit more to bring them to the right temperature in order to push.
“This made it also a bit more difficult because I had to overtake cars during my warm-up, and that was a bit trickier for us than for them.
“That’s where they pulled the gap, which then stayed more or less stable towards the end, but that was too late for us to put them under any pressure.”
