Leclerc Predicts 'Tight' Battle With Mercedes Ahead Of 2023 United States Grand Prix

Sunday, 22 October 2023 at 20:00

Updated at Wednesday, 25 October 2023 at 21:43

Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc shared his predictions for Sunday's race after the 2023 United States Grand Prix Sprint.

So far, Ferrari remains the only team to beat Red Bull Racing in a 2023 Championship race. After 14 races of Red Bull's dominance, Carlos Sainz finished first at the Singapore Grand Prix.

His teammate, Charles Leclerc, might fancy his chances for Sunday's race at Circuit of the Americas, where he will start from the pole position after successfully qualifying on Friday.

While the Monegasque did not tell media he would expect to compete with Verstappen for the first place, the Dutchman will start from the sixth position on the grid, giving the Ferrari driver a headstart.

"It’s going to be tight, as much as it’s going to be tight also with the Mercedes guys and Lewis. I expect Max [Verstappen] to get ahead and to not be too much of a fight but then otherwise it’s going to be tight.”

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Leclerc will have to defend his first position against Lando Norris in McLaren on his left-hand side going into the first corner. Lewis Hamilton starting right behind Leclerc will also want to compete for the top of the podium. Leclerc continued:

"I think we have to look into our data and try to understand what we can do better for tomorrow’s degradation because the pace is there. It’s always been there. Sometimes, we seem to be a bit inconsistent with our race pace."

The Ferrari driver finished the Sprint in third place. However, Norris has been catching up to the Ferrari driver at a very fast pace in the last few laps, hinting the Ferrari was struggling with tire degradation.

"Today was the case; we struggled more than others, and we’ll try to understand what’s wrong and see if we can do anything different for tomorrow to help that."

On the other hand, Carlos Sainz who was the only driver to start the sprint race on a soft tire compound, managed to defend his sixth position showing that a Ferrari car can preserve its tires sometimes.

Even though Leclerc struggled with tire degradation throughout the sprint race, he has a chance to look at the data with his team and find some places for improvement to increase the chances of a second Ferrari win in 2023.