Charles Leclerc wants to replicate the result of last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix when Formula 1 continues its double header at the Red Bull Ring with the Styrian Grand Prix this weekend.
Despite a poor qualifying session for both Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Leclerc climbed from seventh on the grid to finish third on the road last Sunday and moved up to second place thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s time penalty for colliding with Alexander Albon.
Ferrari are bringing updates to Austria this weekend in a bid to close the obvious gap to the frontrunners and move them away from the midfield, and Leclerc is hopeful of another good haul of points this Sunday.
“It’s certainly strange having two races in a row at the same track,” said Leclerc. “It will be an unusual experience.
“Usually you arrive at the track with the previous year’s data and spend Friday understanding how your car is behaving. This time however, unless it’s wet, we will already have a lot of useful information as to how our car will behave.
“Last Sunday’s race here at Spielberg was very special and great fun. We had a bit of luck which helped us get on the podium and it won’t be easy to do the same this time. But we will certainly try our hardest to make it happen.”
Styrian race ‘A Chance to Do Better than last Sunday’ – Vettel
Team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s opening race of the season was far from easy, with the German starting outside the top ten in eleventh and only finishing tenth after suffering a mid-race spin.
The German, who will depart Ferrari at the end of the season after five years, says this weekend gives him the opportunity to show much better form and get his season back on the right track.
“In such a strange season, starting in the middle of summer, we now face another unusual factor, having two races at the same track in the same year and only one week apart,” said Vettel. “For me, that’s going to mean a chance to do better than last Sunday. We will have a lot more car data to work with and I think what we learned at the first race will be useful.
“As I have always maintained, this is one of my favourite tracks of the year because, even though it’s very short, it has a lot of nice corners and the Austrian mountain setting is fantastic.”
