Charles Leclerc has urged caution within the Ferrari camp even after leading both free practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix. While the Monegasque driver topped the timing sheets at the Circuit of The Americas, he warned that these early results might be misleading and cautioned against building overly high expectations heading into qualifying. He noted that while the car feels good and hit its initial windows, the actual gains from recent updates may not be as dramatic as outside observers suggest.
The team arrived in Texas with several aerodynamic tweaks to the floor, diffuser, and sidepod inlets, though rivals remained skeptical about their effectiveness. Lewis Hamilton had previously suggested these changes might only yield a fraction of a second in performance. Leclerc echoed this sentiment of modesty, admitting that while the hard work paying off is encouraging, other drivers like Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli still appear to have more untapped potential in their machinery.
Team Principal Fred Vasseur shared this pragmatic outlook, reminding everyone that practice classifications rarely tell the full story when it comes to Saturday’s fight for pole position. Vasseur pointed out that managing dirty air remains a significant challenge and emphasized that there are currently half a dozen cars capable of winning. Rather than celebrating an early lead, Ferrari intends to spend the remaining hours fine tuning the new package to ensure they stay competitive under pressure.
