Leclerc: Ferrari not at Mercedes' level

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari remain adrift of Mercedes heading into the Monaco Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows continued their rampant start to 2019 with a fifth one-two from as many races in Spain last time out, with hints that the same could be on the cards in Monte Carlo this week.

Lewis Hamilton led Valtteri Bottas home in Barcelona to retake top spot in the drivers' standings from his team-mate.

Key to the reigning champions' success was supreme pace in the Circuit de Catalunya's third sector – a tight, twisting section reminiscent of Monaco's streets.

They were up by half a second in that sector alone compared to Ferrari and Leclerc says they were not able to claw back the whole deficit in the two days of testing that followed the race.

"My home Grand Prix is always a very special weekend," Leclerc said.

"Even more this weekend obviously coming here in full red with Ferrari with also a chance to have a very good result, so we'll push.

"Obviously we had a difficult start of the season. Low speed corners weren't great in Barcelona but normally Monaco is pretty different. We'll try to turn things around, it's not going to be easy but we'll give it everything.

"I think during testing we understood a few things. Not enough obviously to be at the level of Mercedes but we understand a few things.

"We gained a little bit of time, not enough, we need to keep working and try and understand what's the main issue but the engineers are working on that."

Mattia Binotto has said Ferrari are already looking at "new concepts" for the SF90, which has failed to deliver on its pre-season promise, and Leclerc has backed the team to turn things around.

"I think it's quite calm, we are all working extremely hard," he said.

"Obviously the engineers are trying to understand and trying to push the team forward but overall I think we are all quite calm which is needed.

"We obviously want to improve so everyone is pushing very hard as I said but I think the most important is that the serenity in the team doesn't change, which it doesn't for now."

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