Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc discussed his team's performance following the third race of the season at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne.
Coming out of the 2024 Australia Grand Prix, it is clear that Ferrari made a step in the right direction in terms of their car development.
In all three races so far this season, the Maranello team has clearly been the closest to Red Bull, and in Australia, Scuderia might even have been a bit faster.
While that remains a topic of discussion, Leclerc pointed out that his team is still slower in the bigger picture, as he told the media after the third race weekend:
"If you look at the first three races, two out of the first three races they [Red Bull] had the upper hand in the race. So we still have a lot of work to do. But that's exactly what we need to do as a team."
"Whenever we have the opportunity to actually win a race we need to take it and this weekend we did it, Carlos did it today."
Ferrari could have even been ahead of the Austrian team in the Constructors' Championship by now if Carlos Sainz attended the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Though it must be noted that Ollie Bearman did a fantastic job for a 17-year-old rookie on short notice with little to no practice or preparation, it is reasonable to assume that Sainz would have been able to score at least P5.
Nevertheless, the Monegasque Ferrari driver remains satisfied with how his team has maximized all opportunities so far- P3 and P4 in Bahrain, P4 and P7(Bearman) in Saudi Arabian, and P1 and P2 in Australia. He added:
"On my side, second with the fastest lap, so there are not any more points that we have got. And looking back at the first three races, there is not one race where we didn't maximise the result."
"So we need to do that until we get the car that is consistently better than the Red Bull, especially in the race."