Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has said the new generation of Formula 1 cars are “very different” after spending time in the simulator.
F1 will introduce new formula starting from 2022 season, completely redesigned regulations which they hope will pave the way for cars that can follow and overtake more easily, with smaller gaps throughout the grid.
And while the 2021 season has not yet reached its halfway point, teams are already focusing heavily on ensuring they can hit the ground running with a strong 2022 challenger.
Ferrari are one of the teams stopped developing 2021 cars and focusing completely on their 2022 challenger. The Marquee Italian team hoping these rules changes will open the door for them to return to the front of the grid, and already Leclerc has been putting in simulator work to help the development.
He confirmed the new car does indeed feel “very different”.
“Yes we did,” he responded when asked by reporters in Austria whether or not the Ferrari drivers had been behind the wheel of a simulated 2022 car.
“But it’s still very, very early days. It feels very different.
“Then I think it’s a question mark for everyone whether we are developing well or not. As I was saying, it’s such a different project, it’s very, very early days, so nobody knows where we are positioning ourselves compared to the others. But we are working on it.”
Although work on the car at this stage is heavily dependent on the engineers, Leclerc assured that he and team-mate Carlos Sainz can still play a role with the feedback they provide from the sim sessions.
“It’s difficult because for now it’s only numbers and predictions, but we can definitely give our feedback, especially in the simulator,” he said.
“[We’re lucky] to have a very good simulator at Ferrari and we can try different things in that simulator and there, the driver input is very, very important.
“Then on other things, for now it’s very early days for us to actually say something. The only thing we can do is try to work in the best way possible with Carlos to try and explain what are the weaknesses of this year’s car, try to understand why we have those weaknesses and try to not reproduce those mistakes for next year’s car – even though the project is completely different.
“So I would say on the simulator, we’ve got quite a big input – and we can help a lot, and also with this year’s feedback to try and help the team to work in the right direction and for them to know exactly what they need to go quick.”
