Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari have a realistic chance of winning the constructors’ championship following their emphatic one-two in the United States Grand Prix.
He finished eight seconds ahead of team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr and almost 20 ahead of Max Verstappen, after Lando Norris’ penalty dropped him behind the Red Bull driver.Leclerc said the result was the best indication yet the team has made real progress since introducing an upgrade package at the Italian Grand Prix. Since then he has won twice and come close to victory in Azerbaijan.
However he admitted it’s “very difficult” to judge which of the remaining tracks are likely to suit them best.
“We’ve said [for] two or three races in Monza, in Baku, in Singapore, we brought a few upgrades and we were always waiting for Austin because it was going to be the real test for those upgrades. And they seem to be working all good so that is positive for the future.
“It doesn’t mean that we’ll be having every Sunday the way it’s been today, but it means that we are working in the right direction and that can only be positive. So I hope we can reproduce these kind of results more often.”
The result leaves Ferrari within eight places of Red Bull and 46 points behind championship leaders McLaren with 250 points available over the remaining rounds. Leclerc said Ferrari have “got to target winning the constructors’ title” now.
“It’s an optimistic goal, but that’s what we are here for. So we’ll do the maths at the end of the season.
“Until then, I think the best thing we can do is to focus on ourselves, on our own performance, just like we did this weekend. It’s been a really good weekend for the team and for the constructors’ title. And we’ll try and reproduce that as often as possible. And hopefully at the end of the year, when we do the maths, we will have won the constructors’ title.”
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2024 United States Grand Prix
- McLaren insist stewards made ‘provable error’ after losing bid for review of Norris’ penalty
- Why McLaren’s focus on Verstappen’s driving failed to overturn Norris’ penalty
- Stewards reject McLaren’s request to review Norris’ United States GP penalty
- McLaren know Norris’ penalty is likely to stand – so what do they hope to gain?
- McLaren request review of Norris’ penalty for off-track pass on Verstappen
Jere (@jerejj)
21st October 2024, 10:15
The constructors’ championship is clearly McLaren’s to lose, so on merit, P2 is realistic for Ferrari, & rather likely.
Kribana (@krichelle)
21st October 2024, 10:29
They can definitely get P2 and give Red Bull the biggest embarrassment this year of getting P3 in the constructors.
notagrumpyfan
21st October 2024, 10:44
Primarily an embarrassment on the one who decides on the drivers, and the underperforming driver.
Or a master stroke to get more aero development time.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st October 2024, 11:29
WCC position-based prize money is still more valuable than aero testing time.
notagrumpyfan
21st October 2024, 13:06
Maybe to you, but not to the top teams!
Jere (@jerejj)
21st October 2024, 16:20
Of course, all teams care about the prize money, including the biggest ones, & if anything, Red Bull Racing the most among those, given their lack of a historical bonus, which to my knowledge, some still receive these days.
MacLeod (@macleod)
22nd October 2024, 8:18
@jerejj Red Bull has a big sponsor to compensate any loss in the WCC position-based prize money. So gaining valuable aero testing time which they can’t buy is much beter.
notagrumpyfan
21st October 2024, 10:49
A reasonable target as it’s ‘only’ 48 points which four more 1-2’s will guarantee.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st October 2024, 11:30
Except Ferrari is unlikely to achieve that many 1-2s on pure pace, not to mention McLaren equally has two drivers consistently scoring high points.
notagrumpyfan
21st October 2024, 13:46
Ferrari will bridge the 48 points deficit with four 1-2’s independent of what McLaren does.
And as I stated it is not something ‘likely’ to happen, but a ‘reasonable target’ after a quite dominant weekend on race pace.
AlexS
21st October 2024, 20:23
Ferrari needs roughly to win 10 points per weekend on Mclaren . There are 5 races and 2 sprints to go.
Mexico, Brasil, Vegas, Qatar, Abu Dhabi.
Nick T.
22nd October 2024, 21:55
Yeah, it’s almost as laughable as all the WDC “battle” talk.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
21st October 2024, 11:34
Such a shame their Barcelona upgrade initially didn’t work. Leclerc could be right in the mix for the WDC too and imho him and Hamilton are the only drivers in the field that can hold a candle to Verstappen when it comes to race craft. But still great to see them performing so well after the summer break and the WCC is definitely possible.
MichaelN
21st October 2024, 13:22
Indeed, that was a big disappointment – but at least they seem to have found a way to make that work as they’ve been pretty solid in the past couple of races.
The Leclerc-Verstappen squabbles of early 2022 were unusually clean and fun. Not so last year in Las Vegas, though. Either way, a few more of those would be good!
ChrisJ (@chriju0411)
21st October 2024, 12:53
So where’s the urge from Leclerc exactly based on that headline? Can we have the source for this article’s quotes please?
notagrumpyfan
21st October 2024, 13:48
Patrick (@paeschli)
21st October 2024, 21:55
Leclerc secretly has not given up hope of winning the drivers title for him this year. One crash where both Norris and Verstappen retire and suddenly he is not far off anymore.
Nick T.
22nd October 2024, 21:56
I’d love that outcome.