F1: Leclerc denies Ferrari team is falling apart after opening race disaster

The 2023 Formula One season provided all teams with a fresh start two weeks ago in Bahrain, and when the dust settled after the first race, everyone had a clearer picture of what to expect for the rest of the season. Despite high hopes over the winter, Scuderia Ferrari had a disastrous opening race which caused negative press to swirl around the team.

Contrary to 2022, Ferrari no longer dominated the pace and both Red Bull cars driven by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez qualified in front of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Bahrain. During the race itself the Ferraris could not keep up with the Red Bulls, especially eventual race winner Verstappen, who opened up a massive gap almost as soon as the lights went out.

Leclerc was trying his best to catch up but his engine gave out early in the race, giving him a grid penalty in this weekend's race in Saudi Arabia. Then, Sainz was overtaken by Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin for the final podium position, making it clear that they may not even have tight grip on second place this year.

Needless to say, Ferrari has started 2023 on the wrong foot, and speculations are rife that the team is imploding. The situation at the factory has been described to be grim, and key members of the team are said to be planning on jumping ship.

Leclerc admitted that the he heard the reports and was initially worried. Luckily, a quick trip to the factory in Maranello eased his fears. "Honestly, I obviously saw these rumours and then I went to Maranello. So at first I was not sure how the team is going to react to it. But then we've had a meeting with the whole team, with all the Ferrari employees. And I was really surprised. Everybody's fully on it and fully positive, which is great," he told Motorsport.com.

Leclerc also denied that he had spoken to Ferrari CEO John Elkann to seek reassurances about the future. He said that these stories were "completely untrue," and that 90 per cent of the negative rumours around the team are also unfounded.

The Monegasque star admitted that he has no idea where the negative rumours are coming from, but he is personally more interested on working hard and moving forward. He feels that no one in the team should be wasting any energy talking about negative reports and rumours of chaos within their ranks.

He shared that he felt assured that those rumours were unfounded after his visit to Maranello where he was personally able to speak with people at the factory. "I still believe in it and, of course, we still need to all believe in it. We've still got many, many races to go and we still need to be fighting like crazy to be back at the top," he said.

Leclerc admitted that he understands why there are such negative speculations surrounding the team due to the setbacks from the opening race. He also said that because they are Ferrari, the expectations are much higher than for most of the other teams on the grid simply because of the team's history.

He thinks that the determination to work together to move forward and improve has been there throughout the past several weeks, and that has not diminished after Bahrain. "I'm really looking forward to being back on track. Stop the talk and get back to driving," he said.

His teammate also felt like the energy inside the Ferrari camp is a lot more positive than people on the outside believe it to be. Sainz even said that the rumours are only being used by external forces to "destabilise" the team.

"It is a lot better than what the news makes it sound like," he said, referring to concerns about growing discontent among the ranks. He assured that the team remains motivated and they have already identified what they need to do and the areas they need to work on moving forward.

Sainz also pointed out that one race is not enough to call the situation at Ferrari a crisis and judgement should be held for now, even though he admitted that they all recognise that things are not great at the moment.

"We are the first ones who are not happy with how this first race went and we are the most bothered about it, and we are the most affected by it. We are going to try as much as possible to try and improve it," claimed the Spaniard.

Both drivers confirmed their commitment to the team and both are determined to come back stronger in the next race in Saudi Arabia. They will want to score crucial points with both cars this weekend if they want to avoid falling behind in the title race this early.