Charles Leclerc has urged caution over Ferrari's much-hyped upgrade despite topping both of Friday's Formula 1 practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix. The Scuderia arrived at COTA debuting a significant aerodynamic upgrade on its SF-26 car, featuring a brand new floor, revised diffuser, and heavily reshaped bodywork.
The Monegasque driver immediately set the pace in both practice outings on Friday, showing promising early speed in Texas. Yet, despite the strong start to the race weekend, he was quick to downplay the overall impact of the new parts package introduced by the Italian outfit.
"The feeling is quite good but we need to be careful. Obviously it's only Friday," Leclerc said when speaking to the media in the paddock. He explained that while the behavior on track matched their pre-weekend simulations, it is certainly not the massive leap in lap time that everyone outside the team might assume.
The balance of the machine was immediately dialed into a sweet spot straight out of the box, allowing them to capitalize on the hard work done back at the factory to bring these updates forward. Even so, he stressed that expectations must be kept in check with rival teams expected to unlock significantly more pace.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton appeared to struggle for relative performance, ending the second practice session in fourth place and over half a second adrift of the benchmark. Leclerc edged out Max Verstappen in FP1 before narrowly beating Andrea Kimi Antonelli by just 0,042 seconds in FP2.
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