Charles Leclerc was fastest in both Friday practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix, but he does not think he goes into qualifying as the favourite. The Ferrari driver believes Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli have more pace to come, and he says his team's Austin upgrade is smaller than people expected.
Leclerc says the upgrade is a small step
Once the cars were back in the garage, though, the man at the top of the timesheets was much more cautious at the Circuit of the Americas. Leclerc described the update as a modest package that helped Ferrari start the weekend well, not a big leap forward.
"The feeling is quite good, but we need to be careful. Obviously, it's only Friday, and we are seeing what we expected. But, again, it's definitely not what everybody thinks in terms of of upgrade and lap time gains"
He also pointed to the pattern he expects from Friday to Saturday. "I think the balance of the car was good, and straight away, we started in a in a good window, and that paid off. And and obviously, all the hard work that has been done in order to bring this upgrade as soon as possible is also helping us a little bit, but we shouldn't carry too high expectations going into tomorrow because I felt like the others have more potential to unlock for sure."
Leclerc driving the SF-26 at COTA - Photo: Race Pictures
Leclerc named his rivals: "I mean, Kimi and Max seem to be very, very strong. The McLaren, I don't really know yet. I don't think they put everything together yet, but Kimi and Max will definitely be up there."
Hamilton had already lowered expectations
Leclerc's caution matches what his teammate said before a lap had been run. At Thursday's press conference, Lewis Hamilton put a figure on the new floor. "We have a very, very small upgrade this weekend. It's less than a tenth. It's like half a tenth," he said, according to The Race.
Team principal Fred Vasseur was just as careful on Friday evening. "I'm not sure that the classification of FP1 was always relevant for Qualifying," he told Formula1.com, adding that the impact of the upgrades was "a bit less than at the beginning of the season".
Verstappen's deleted lap and the gaps tell a similar story
In FP1, Verstappen briefly went faster than Leclerc with a 1:35.8, but the lap was deleted for track limits at Turn 19. Leclerc set a 1:36.0. In the end, the Ferrari driver finished ahead of the four-time world champion by 0.084s.
In the second session, Antonelli finished just 0.042s behind, while Verstappen was two tenths of a second off the Monegasque driver's pace.