Nicholas Latifi, Williams, Imola, 2021

Third place in the championship is “realistic” for Ferrari – Leclerc

2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Charles Leclerc says third place in the 2021 constructors’ championship is a “realistic goal” for Ferrari.

The team bagged one place on the second row of the grid courtesy of Leclerc in Bahrain. He and new team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr went on to finish sixth and eighth in the race, putting them fourth in the championship after one race.

“I think a realistic goal for this year would be to be behind just behind Red Bull and Mercedes,” Leclerc said in the FIA press conference before the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

“Realistically, I think it’s going to be very difficult to fight with them – we are too far behind for now. But we are in the fight with four, five other teams for the third place in the constructors. So it’s going to be a tight fight. But if we do everything perfect, I think it’s reachable.”

Ferrari fell to sixth in the championship last year. Their 2021 car is closely based on the machine they raced in 2020, but features a revised power unit.

Their development of the current machine will be limited not only by F1’s regulations, but also the team’s focus on designing next year’s car, when a new aerodynamic rule set will be introduced.

Leclerc was asked in the press conference if he believes Ferrari has the right mentality right now to juggle its plans for next year while also making the most of a much-needed recovery after its dismal 2020 campaign.

“I think the mentality is right,” said Leclerc. “On this I have no doubts and I think we are working well.

“At the start of 2020 was difficult to just realise the reality of things and to understand that we were really a step down compared to 2019. But we went through this process in a good way. And then we started to work to reconstruct a little bit of the whole project and, and the mentality is right.

“I don’t think we are getting carried away by the fight there is, or the fight there will be during the season to fight for the third place of the constructors.

“Everyone is well aware that there’s much more to gain to prepare 2022 in the right way, because these new cars will last for a lot longer, for many years after 2022.”

2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix articles

Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

5 comments on “Third place in the championship is “realistic” for Ferrari – Leclerc”

  1. But we are in the fight with four, five other teams for the third place in the constructors.

    It is great for us there are 5 teams competing for third place in the World Constructors’ Championship, although it isn’t so great for Ferrari and the other teams.
    In some ways having a points system that only covers half the cars does mean it is difficult to judge half the field this early in the season. For example AlphaTauri have two points, Aston Martin have just one point, and Alpine and Alfa Romeo have no points, yet any of these could finish third in the WCC if they play their cards correctly. Both Alpine and Haas had a driver who failed to complete the race. A points system that covered the all the cars that finished would have been more punishing to a team’s results (and more rewarding to Williams) than what the current points system does.

  2. I’ve mocked Ferrari last season, but this year I’m not going to. “Rebuilding Ferrari” will be sooner.

  3. PR is gonna shift from «it’s realistic» to «still mathematically realistic».

    1. And when it’s mathematically realistic I’m gonna say it won’t happen, just check 2017 I believe it was, after some mechanical problems for vettel, when they had to win all remaining races and mercedes had to get bad results on all too, absolutely unrealistic.

      On other hand I believe this particular goal is reasonable.

  4. Gotta admit these young driver generation (leclerc, and Lando) really are candid about their car performance. They don’t underrate or bemoan to the media how their rivals have much faster cars and are ahead of them

Comments are closed.