After witnessing the season’s eagerly anticipated first “sprint race”, F1 fans would undoubtedly experience nothing but excitement. Thanks to Charles Leclerc‘s second pole of the weekend, Ferrari remained the fastest in the qualifying rounds. However, Leclerc was beaten by the King after putting on such an impressive display of skills. Yes, Sergio Perez—the king of street circuits—won the Baku sprint race, again demonstrating his ability to take advantage of the city’s streets. However, even after having the chance to take the race win, Ferrari kneeled down to Red Bull’s advantage of straight speed. Nevertheless, Ferrari TP Frederic Vasseur has displayed some signs of optimism following Carlos Sainz’s hefty P5 and Charles Leclerc being sandwiched between the Red Bull boys.

Since taking over as Ferrari’s team principal last year, Frederic Vasseur has displayed signs of optimism even when the squad was underperforming. Charles Leclerc, however, has been at the receiving end of disappointment from the start of the season since having only size points in his bag with several issues hitting his SF-23. Nevertheless, the Scuderia camp has had a terrific weekend thus far, and following that, Vasseur gave Leclerc some hope to take on the Red Bull rocketship.

In an interview with motorsports.com Turkey Version, the Frenchman said, “We probably pushed a little harder today than we expected to go at Perez’s pace. Now we need to figure out exactly where we can improve by tomorrow, because tomorrow will be a completely different story than today, with at least two stints and different doughs.”

Being well aware that Red Bull is still the team to defeat Vasseur added, “We know it’s a tough fight. Even though we’re faster than Red Bull in qualifying, they have an advantage on straight speed, which is very important in Baku. When Perez turned on the DRS it was like a rocket and that’s very important in a race like this.” While showing some optimism, the 54-year-old concluded, “But tomorrow we have another opportunity, we will be in the struggle.”

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Leclerc could have believed that he would be the first to cross the checkered flag at the sprint race after dominating both qualifying sessions. However, it didn’t happen, and rather than being discouraged, we saw the Monegasque to be quite encouraged. So what kept him so inspired?

Despite losing to Sergio Perez, what’s keeping Charles Leclerc so hopeful?

Once more, Red Bull’s superior straight-line speed allowed it to claim victory. However, this time it wasn’t Max Verstappen but the other red bull pilot who earned the win. What fans found more intriguing was Charles Leclerc left behind Red Bull’s ace driver Max Verstappen. Leclerc has finally experienced pleasure after three disappointing races, and having Verstappen in the rear would have given him some cause for optimism.

While conversing with Formula1.com, the Monegasque said that Red Bull still has the upper hand and that the P2 at the sprint is a “step forward.” He said, “We cannot change the car, so of course you can work a little bit here and there on flaps maybe. But it confirms a little bit what we thought, [that] the Red Bull still has the upper hand in the race. But we again must not forget how far we were behind in race pace two races ago. So, we did a step forward.”

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Showing some optimism, he added, “We are still not where we want to be, but as I said, if winning is not possible, then we just need to take the maximum points. Today there was not anything more. So, [I’m] happy with the second place, and we will try to go for the win [from pole] tomorrow, even though the Red Bull seems a bit quicker.”

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Today will be a crucial test for Charles Leclerc and Scuderia as they compete against Red Bull. Having said that, do you believe the Prancing Horse will be able to maintain their qualifying pace during the race?