Charles Leclerc has openly said that he isn’t paying too much attention to what upgrades Mercedes and Red Bull are bringing to upcoming races.

The opening salvo of the 2022 season has been an outstanding one for Ferrari, with Leclerc leading the drivers' championship by 35 points over Mercedes George Russell, whilst Ferrari holds a 39 point cushion over Mercedes in the constructors' championship as they struggle with the overall pace and porpoising of the W13. 

Meanwhile, Red Bull has had a troublesome start to the new season, with reigning World champion Max Verstappen languishing in sixth in the drivers' standings after two retirements in Bahrain and Australia, with the Dutchman’s only points so far this season coming in Jeddah after just denying Leclerc his second consecutive victory.

Sergio Perez is five points ahead in fourth after saving Red Bull’s blushes in Australia with second place but over 20 seconds behind Leclerc, who cruised to his second win of the season.

But despite the Mexican’s good result, Red Bull remains in third in the constructors' championship as Formula 1 returns to Europe after three flyaways.

With both teams set to bring upgrades to their cars for the upcoming races, Ferrari continues to wait to introduce there's after electing not to bring any new parts for the Imola weekend.

None of this bothers Leclerc, who is openly not paying too much attention to what Ferrari’s rivals are up to, as he states that the team found it more beneficial to look at their weaknesses instead of their rivals.

“I don't want to look too much at the others, the approach that we've had the last two years, we couldn't really focus on anyone else because we did such a step backward from 2019 to 2020 that we just wanted to be back at the top. By focusing on ourselves, we found much more value than just focusing on the others, and I think that is the approach that I want to keep this year.”

“It is not looking too much about what Mercedes and Red Bull are doing but focusing on ourselves. What are the weaknesses? Again, this has been a strength of ours in the last few years, to really identify our weaknesses and to work on them and to quickly fix them. That's what we need to do this year. And then I'm pretty sure that if we do that successfully, then the results will come.”

The run-up to Ferrari’s first home race of the season got off to a rough start for Leclerc, as he was robbed of a $320,000 Richard Mille watch on ​​Easter Monday when walking Via Salvatori in Viareggio.

Leclerc had briefly given chase to the thieves but ultimately lost track of them as they ran down a darkened alleyway and into the night with the watch in tow. 

Shortly after the watch was reported stolen, a criminal investigation commenced, but Leclerc has revealed that the hunt for the missing watch has been far from routine.  But the Monegasque has put the criminal investigation temporality to one side so that he can focus on this weekend’s race which is expected to have a near sell-out crowd after the circuit’s previous two Grand Prix’s were held behind closed doors because of Covid-19 restrictions.

“I won’t go too much into details; it hasn’t been a great experience; I cannot say much more than that. But obviously, everything is going on with the police, and they are trying to find them. It hasn’t been as smooth as what I’ve read. But yeah, overall, I am fine and fully focused on the weekend. It won’t hurt me for this weekend.”

“I'm very excited; after the first three races, everything has gone our way, and we seem to have a very strong car for this year. Obviously, to be at home for Ferrari, I know that in past years we had so much support here, and now to be here in that position, I’m sure it’s going to be special. But the most important thing for us this weekend is to not overdo things, which is easy whenever there is excitement, and whenever things are going well.”