FERRARI - WE DESERVE A GOOD RESULT

The loss of Niki Lauda and expectations for the weekend on track were the central themes when Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel met the media on the Wednesday of the Monaco Grand Prix. For this event, practice starts on Thursday rather than the usual Friday.

Home-grown talent. The centre of attention is clearly Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver spoke of Lauda, recalling his "availability and how humble he was, given how successful he had been as a Formula 1 driver. He was one of the greats and everyone will miss him."

Then the questioning switched to this Grand Prix. "This is undoubtedly a special race for me and I am very proud to be racing here in Monaco as a Scuderia Ferrari driver. I will do my utmost to get a great result. Our season did not get off to the start we would have wanted", admitted Charles.

"But day by day our level of understanding of the SF90 increases. This is a very unusual track, but I think that all the kilometres of testing we did in Barcelona can be useful even here. The atmosphere in the team is calm and that is proof that we are going in the right direction. As a team, we just have to work a lot."

A determined Seb. Sebastian Vettel spoke to the press in the team hospitality unit. He too spoke first of Lauda: "I was fortunate to know Niki and usually we had a chat, which was a real privilege for me. He was always honest in his opinions and I am sure no one can fill the gap that he leaves in our sport."

As for the Monaco weekend, Sebastian said he was ready for this very special race. "Here, anything can happen, because there are so many variables to take into consideration: traffic, barriers, the weather, they can all affect the result somehow."

"And I have to say we deserve a good result here. We have worked very hard and we still are, but we have not managed to get the results we should have done. We know we still have work to do to improve to reach the level of competitiveness that we were expecting at the start of the season."

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: "The run up to this Monaco Grand Prix has been perturbed by our sadness at the news of Niki’s death. His straightforward no nonsense approach will be missed in Formula 1 and it will seem strange for all of us not seeing him in the paddock. Niki was a standard bearer for Ferrari and for Formula 1 and he pushed through changes in motor racing that made it even more professional, being ahead of his time in terms of being a stickler for detail which is now very much a key element of our sport."

"Turning now to this weekend’s race, last week’s testing in Barcelona and analyses carried out in Maranello confirmed just how much this year’s tyres, which are very different to those we had in 2018, require different mechanical and aerodynamic settings to work properly. We are already working in Maranello on evaluating new concepts, as well as bringing some initial further updates here."

"This Grand Prix is celebrating its 90th anniversary, as indeed is the Scuderia, which makes this weekend even more special. It’s a very different sort of race, where the track characteristics that can shake up the order could be jumbled up still further this weekend. As usual, qualifying will be very important because of the fact it’s almost impossible to overtake. Of course, Monaco is Charles’ home race and we know how much it means to him. It means a lot to us too."

On track. Track action starts with the first free practice session at 11:00 and the second at 15:00 CET.

On Friday, as usual there is no F1 track activity.

Qualifying is at 15:00 CET on Saturday and the 66th Monaco Grand Prix starts at 15.10 on Sunday, although this is actually the 90th anniversary of the first race.