Australian GP: Charles Leclerc comments could mean it's advantage Red Bull this weekend

The Australian Grand Prix is back on the scene having not been held since 2019 and it could be advantage Red Bull in Melbourne if Charles Leclerc’s comments are anything to go by.

Leclerc leads the Drivers’ standings after two rounds of the championship, with Ferrari atop of the Constructors’ table, but the Monegasque is not sure whether they are going to have the strongest car around the Albert Park circuit, which has been tweaked and made a fair bit faster with one of the chicanes removed in sector two.

Indeed, though Ferrari have regularly played down their chances and still impressed this season, Leclerc is sticking with that line of thought, with him suggesting that they will be close and in the mix for the race win but potentially not the favourites, going on to say that the old layout the circuit used to have would have suited the F1-75 better.

“Overall the track characteristics here are not fitting very well with our [car], but everything is to play for,” Leclerc said via the BBC.

“I still think we will be in the mix – it will still be very close.

“I think the old one would have suited us better,” Leclerc said. “But it is the way it is and we will try to maximise everything as always and hopefully Imola [host of the next race] will be a track that suits us a little bit better.

“It is not like it is going to be a big gap. If we do the perfect job, everything is possible.”

Ultimately, time will tell as to who comes out on top and who is second but it surely seems likely it’s Red Bull and Ferrari battling for the win again this weekend.

Few others can really close the gap to them at the moment, and so we’ll just have to see which of the two early pace-setters takes victory on Sunday.