Ferrari’s last win in the F1 Championship was in 2008. From then until 2024, celebrated drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc joined the team. But they were not able to win against Mercedes during its 8-year dominance at the World Championship. And then, it turned out that when FIA introduced new regulations in 2022, there was a chance for Ferrari to take up a winning position by beating Red Bull and Mercedes.

But in this new regulatory era, Red Bull took the lead early on. Meanwhile, struggling with performance inconsistency left Ferrari to lick its wounds. The Scuderia looked to be in contention for the championships in 2022, thanks to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dominating the season’s first few races. However, that lead was gradually lost, and by the end of 2023, Mattia Binotto, who was Ferrari’s boss at the time, had to step down from his position after failing to deliver an F1 Championship win in Maranello. Subsequently, Frederic Vasseur made his entry into Ferrari to restore it to its former glory.

This year, while both Leclerc and Sainz have won a race each, they have also had some disappointing DNFs. The obvious inconsistency that seems to plague Ferrari every season has been a villain for the team in 2024. Explaining where this inconsistency comes from, Leclerc told ‘F1: Beyond the Grid’, “I cannot tell that as an excuse. But I really feel like everybody in the paddock is struggling to find that consistency. Whenever you bring performance upgrades, you always discover new things. New things that you didn’t expect and didn’t see in simulations. That’s not only us, but it’s everywhere in the paddock.”

While highlighting the poor maintenance of consistency by his team, Charles Leclerc also took the name of the squad that has cracked the code to consistency, in his opinion. So, which F1 squad is it?

Charles Leclerc has claimed Ferrari is trying to be the “best” like Red Bull

Charles Leclerc has blamed Ferrari’s performance upgrades as the reason behind the inconsistency. But it is no news that those upgrades are a must for any F1 team. They can sometimes help a squad get better results (just like McLaren has improved enormously ever since adding upgrades to MCL-36 this year). On the other hand, upgrading the cars exposes the team to unknown consequences during the actual race, like engine failure (like in the case of Ferrari).

Now, Charles Leclerc has said that it’s just Red Bull that has given consistent results with and without their upgrades. He said, “Red Bull had managed to make it right since the beginning of those new regulations. So, it cannot be an excuse and we need to be the best inside the paddock and we’re aware of it.”

Now, there are only eleven Grands Prix left for this season. So, it might be a little late for Ferrari to try and get closer to the highest rank in the Championship table. But do you think the Italian outfit can achieve those results next year?