Leclerc ready to challenge Red Bull: "A very encouraging sign"

Charles Leclerc finished second in Melbourne behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, making it the first Ferrari 1-2 since Bahrain in 2022. Although the Monegasque driver was beaten by his teammate this weekend, Ferrari's incredible pace, which edged Red Bull in Australia, has boosted his morale. 

Red Bull sits on 97 points in the constructors championship after the Australian GP, and Ferrari are now breathing down their necks on 93 points. Speaking in the press conference, this is what Charles Leclerc had to say about Ferrari's stellar result and how it gives him motivation to challenge Red Bull.

Leclerc delighted with Australian GP result 

"It's extremely important because it's been a long time since we have had the genuine pace to beat Red Bull. I wouldn't say under control because we don't know what the real pace of Max was today, but I will say that from FP1 we knew that the pole position and the race win were possible because we had very good tyre degradation, very good pace and that is a very encouraging sign.

"However, if you look at the first three races, two out of the first three races Red Bull had the upper hand in the race so we still have a lot of work to do but that's exactly what we need to do as a team. Whenever we have the opportunity to actually win a race we need to take it and this weekend we did it, and Carlos did it today. On my side second with the fastest lap so we couldn’t have got more points. Looking back at the first three races, there is not one race where we didn't maximise the results so we need to do that until we get the car that is consistently better than the Red Bull, especially in the race."