Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has admitted his team isn’t quick enough to challenge McLaren for this 12 months's constructors' championship but is hopeful consistency will help them stay in contention.
Although McLaren have been in good form in Formula 1 since taking the baton from Red Bull, Ferrari's resurgence in recent races has seen them remain out of the running for the world championship.
With six races to go before the top of the season, McLaren leads Red Bull by 31 points, with Ferrari an additional 34 points behind in third.
While McLaren are unlikely to expire of steam after Lando Norris' dominant performance on the Singapore Grand Prix, Leclerc isn’t ready to provide up just yet, even when the Ferrari is unable to maintain up with him when it comes to speed.
“I feel if we’re consistent and don’t waste too many opportunities, we’ll add up the losses at the top and hopefully it would be enough for us to win the constructors’ title. Consistency can still save Ferrari’s long shot F1 title bid“said Leclerc after ending fifth under the highlight in Singapore.
“But in terms of pure pace, I don't think we're at the level yet to fight for the constructors. I don't see myself fighting too much, but if they make mistakes we could end up fighting like we are now.”
Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Leclerc is wary of placing an excessive amount of weight on Ferrari's improved performance within the last three races in Monza, Baku and Singapore, which did probably not test whether Ferrari had solved the issue of bouncing out of high-speed corners that has plagued the team because the summer.
“Although the last two races have been good, I think we've always said we have to be careful and not have false expectations because McLaren still have a better car than us, quite a lot,” he explained.
“We have a few tracks where we'll be very close, a few others where we'll be further away. Before this race we were quite close and we never really had the fastest car, apart from maybe Monaco, and in Monza we were quite strong as well.”
His team-mate Carlos Sainz, who crashed out in Q3 in Singapore and was unable to progress from tenth on the grid to seventh, said Ferrari had Red Bull of their sights for second if McLaren were to fall too far behind.
“McLaren definitely have the advantage because they are the favourites to win,” added the Spaniard. “We still have Red Bull in our sights and of course McLaren, if they start to drop or start to struggle we have to hold on.”
Asked if beating Red Bull and ending second would still be a satisfactory result for the Maranello-based team, he replied: “It would be proof of the team's good resilience after a difficult period in which we lost a lot of points and had to develop a lot.”
“But Red Bull will come back stronger and with improvements at the end of the season, once they understand what they did wrong with their car, so beating them won’t be easy either.”
Additional reporting by Ben Hunt
