Though optimistic following his first laps in the SF-24, Charles Leclerc insists that it is far too early to start making predictions.

At a time teams are either talking of evolution or revolution, Ferrari is one of those that has opted for the latter, the Maranello outfit having vowed to change "95 per cent" of the components used on the SF-24's predecessor.

Having been impressed with his early simulator work in the new car, Leclerc was giving little away after lapping Fiorano in the real thing.

"On the simulator, I like the behaviour of the car," he told reporters. "In the real laps I've done today, it's too early yet," he added. "For now I don't want to comment too much on the first few laps I've done this morning because I wasn't actually pushing yet."

One of the main issues with the SF-23 was its unpredictability, the car seemingly changing not merely from track to track but day to day, asked if the team had made compromises with the SF-24 in a bid to make the car more predictable, Leclerc said: No, I don't think there were any compromises that way. I think you compromise more time to actually improve those areas more than actually compromising one area for the other.

"Let me explain better," he continued. "You compromise the time of the engineer that instead of focusing on adding points to the car they are focusing on adding more driveability to the car, but that's the only thing you compromise in a way and I don't even call it a compromise.

"I think it's just the way we need to work and that was one of the priorities, but it's not like, 'ah the car is more driveable but we had to compromise the drag of the car'. I don't think it came out with any downside of improving that particular area to the car."

Indeed, despite the optimism surrounding the Italian team, Leclerc - who is reported to have a get-out clause in his contract that should Ferrari not have a winning car by the end of 2026 he can leave - insists that it is best to wait and see rather than believing the Maranello outfit has solved its previous issues.

"Looking back at the previous years you always need to wait two or three races to feel how strong of a package you have on different tracks," he said. "Sometimes you can have a very strong package on one track and you get to another track and you are struggling much more.

"We will always have to wait two or three races to see our car in different conditions, different wind, different temperature, different track layout, before actually drawing conclusions of what can be achieved that season. But of course we will have a good picture of where we are at after the first race."

Asked about his input, in terms of advising the team's engineers, he said: "We are in a time in Formula 1 where it changed quite a bit, now Formula 1 has so much technology, so many ways in order to improve a car and basically the main target for engineers is to try and have the fastest car by adding downforce and having less drag possible.

"Of course we had a problem of balance which was mostly linked to the outside conditions, which is wind sensitivity, especially, but also temperature, ambient and track, and this was affecting probably more the race pace than the qualifying pace, and in that as drivers we have an important feedback to give to the team as these are things that are a bit more difficult to find on data.

"However, the general performance of the car now is based mostly on the technology and working on having a better and a faster car."

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