CHARLES LECLERC has hailed his Ferrari team as special after the Italian outfit launched their car for the 2023 Formula one season.
The Scuderia will be desperately hoping this is the car to end their championship drought in 2023.
The most iconic team on the grid haven’t won a championship since 2007.
A failure to claim either the drivers or constructors championship would make it the longest drought in the team’s history.
Ferrari launched the SF-23 from their Maranello base with Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz present alongside new team principal Fred Vasseur and other members of senior management.
Both drivers took to the teams Fiorano track following the launch to do the cars first laps in front of the teams fans on a special demo day.
Leclerc said: ” It felt good. The first kilometres of this new project, after doing so many kilometres on the simulator, it feels special.”
He added: ” Everything went smoothly.
“Obviously, with two laps it’s difficult to go into details but I already gave my feedback to the engineers once I was in the car to get the first feeling.”
The Italian team will be hoping to go one better after finishing second to Red Bull in the constructors championship last season.
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Leclerc added: “The goal is to win. The feeling of winning is what motivates me and motivates all the team, too.
“So I’m really looking forward to getting back in the car and trying to win that championship.”
Despite a strong start to the 2022 season winning two of the first three races of last season Leclerc came up short to run away championship winner Max Verstappen.
He said: “We’ve done a great job working it and trying to address the weaknesses that there were on this car, so hopefully it will be better.”
Leclerc concluded : “We finished second in the constructors championship and the drivers’ championship, so I’m really looking forward to this new car.
Pre season testing takes place in Bahrain from February 23-25 with the first race of the Formula One season taking place at the same venue on March 5.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
