Ferrari and Red Bull being closely matched on one-lap speed this weekend has raised hopes of a possible race-long battle between them in the sprint event – if Leclerc and Verstappen repeat their qualifying result in the shootout session.
Should that happen and Verstappen heads his 2022 title rival on the grid for Saturday afternoon’s race – a situation that is not guaranteed after the wet start to proceedings at the Red Bull Ring – Leclerc is hoping that DRS becoming active on the second lap of sprint races rather than the third in a grand prix will aid Ferrari in sticking close to Red Bull.
“There's this new rule that after the first lap now we can activate DRS during the sprint, if I'm not wrong, which obviously helps us a little bit as with DRS here you can stay within one second a little bit easier,” he said after qualifying second for the GP.
“But again, they've got a lot of pace, so it's going to be difficult anyway.”
Leclerc and his team-mate Carlos Sainz are not getting carried away about their chances of beating Verstappen in either Red Bull Ring race, as the two squads have “two very different cars since last year”, per Leclerc – in reference to his 2022 Austrian GP win over Verstappen.
This is because Ferrari is not sure it can convert the promise it showed over a race stint in Canada into consistent improved tyre degradation, which has been its key weakness against Red Bull.
Source: Autosport