Ferrari tempers expectations: "We have to be realistic"

Optimism?

With Hungary on the horizon, the team from Maranello seems to be gearing up for another strong race, as Ferrari also managed to perform well at the last high downforce circuit in Monaco. Charles Leclerc doesn't want to count himself rich just yet though. "I mean, it's good to be an optimist, and I think we all want to be an optimist after such a good performance in the last three races, but on the other hand we also have to be realistic."

"We are in a good mood, but I feel that going for the win in Budapest is maybe a bit optimistic. So realistically I think I will be happy if we are just behind the top two teams," says the Monegasque. Teammate Carlos Sainz, for his part, disputes whether the Hungaroring can be compared to Monaco at all. "Budapest has actually become a medium to high-speed circuit lately with these cars," he told Autosport.com.

Good circuit for Ferrari?

The Spaniard continued, "If you look at Monaco and Baku there are corners you take in second or third gear, but Budapest nowadays, with these insane cars with a lot of downforce, has a middle sector where you are in fourth or fifth gear all the time, so it's not a pure low-speed track like it used to be. I don't think it will be such a good track for us. I do think it's a great opportunity to be right behind Red Bull and Mercedes, but downforce is still the most important thing and we can see from the data that those guys are still ahead."