Charles Leclerc says he hasn’t felt any extra pressure in his first half-season as a Ferrari driver.

Leclerc stepped up to Ferrari from Sauber (now Alfa Romeo) last year. He has come close to victories in Bahrain and Austria, but narrowly missed out, and suffered crashes in qualifying at Azerbaijan and during the race in Germany.

Although he is one of the youngest and least experienced drivers to join Ferrari in recent seasons, Leclerc says he is able to deal with the extra attention which comes with the role.

“The pressure, I really don’t feel it,” he said. However he admitted one of the more challenging aspects of his promotion has been getting used to a much bigger team.

“Obviously being a Ferrari driver is always a dream come true but it also is quite a lot more work. You need to work as hard as possible – coming in a top team in general there are a lot of people, you need to be understanding and learning how to work with so many people at the beginning coming from a smaller team. So this has been the biggest challenge for me.”

Leclerc has made clear gains in recent races, notably in the his qualifying performances. He says this has come about because he and the team have got to know each other better.

“I’m learning how to work with them but they are also learning how to work with me,” he said. “What I prefer in terms of set-ups in general, what is the car balance that I like to drive and things like this. So this is better races after races.”

He has already developed a reputation for being tough with himself on the radio when things go wrong, but he indicated this is not a sign of the strain he is under.

“It’s just the way I work,” he said. “I think it’s the best way forward to not to to find any excuses whenever you do a mistake but just to analyse it and be very honest with yourself. That’s what I’m trying to do every time.

“I’m definitely not ashamed to admit when I’ve done a mistake and I’ve done one at the end it’s quite clear. So no need to find an excuse.”

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2019 F1 season