Leclerc and team-mate Carlos Sainz took the Scuderia's new challenger for a spin around the team's Pista di Fiorano test track in front of the Tifosi yesterday during the car's official launch.
The bulk of reps with the new car have been done on the simulator and Leclerc says, according to the feel from those sessions, a change of driving style will be needed to make the most of the new machinery.
"It feels good," said the Monegasque driver when asked about his first impressions of the new car. "We always need to wait before putting the real car on track to obviously correlate all data but on the simulator, it feels positive.
"There are some differences so we need to adapt a little bit the driving style but overall the feeling is good. It seems that the weaknesses that we had last year are better for for this year which was the which was the goal but we still need to wait [for] the first few real laps before speaking."
It signalled the culmination of the offseason's work developing the car and Leclerc, who finished second in the title race last season, is eager to go one better this year.
"We've been putting a lot of work into the new car and now it's finally all done," said Leclerc. "We want to to improve. Last year was a good step forward, we need to do just the same this year and hopefully get the championship.
"That is the target for the team and it is the target for me to get more wins, hopefully be more consistent from the first race to the last race. And hopefully we'll get that title!"