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Leclerc backs Ferrari’s chances for constructors’ title ‘until it’s mathematically impossible’ as he explains goal for Zandvoort
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Charles Leclerc insists that he will not give up hope of Ferrari fighting for the constructors’ championship until it becomes “mathematically impossible”, with the Scuderia currently only 63 points behind leaders Red Bull.
Leclerc and Ferrari enjoyed a decent start to the season, having collected several podium finishes before a memorable home victory for the 26-year-old in Monaco. However, they have struggled to replicate this form in the races since, though there were signs of promise just prior to the summer break via a third place in the Belgian Grand Prix.
With the second half of the season about to begin in Zandvoort, Leclerc acknowledged that the team have a tough challenge on their hands amid an increasingly close scrap between the leading four outfits.
McLaren sit 21 points ahead of them in second place of the standings, while Mercedes are 79 points behind in fourth place but could feasibly make gains given their strong run of form across recent races.
Asked if the constructors’ title was still a possibility for Ferrari, Leclerc responded: “I will always believe in the constructors’ until it’s mathematically impossible. Realistically speaking, today we’ve got a McLaren that is super, super strong, that have improved a lot.
Leclerc finished the Belgian Grand Prix in third place, his best result since his victory in Monaco back in May
“They are not too far ahead, but Oscar [Piastri] and Lando [Norris] are fast and they’ve got a great car, so that’s going to be our team to beat. Then of course, there’s Red Bull, but we still have quite a long way ahead of us in the last few races.
“McLaren was definitely consistently stronger, Red Bull as well, and we’ve also got Mercedes that have done a big step forward. We have a lot of work to do.”
Leclerc says that the summer break was “important” following a run of challenging weekends after Monaco, but recognised the positives that the squad can take from their better outings in Hungary and Belgium.
“I feel like the best breakthrough we had was in the last two races, and we cannot expect to now be winning again,” the Monegasque commented. “I feel like Spa and the one before were two good races, considering the performance of our car.
“We cannot expect much more for now, so we’ve just got to improve the car. It is true that from Monaco to Hungary, we struggled quite a bit as a team because we had problems, and also the performance of the car we had a few issues.
'We have a lot of work to do' - Leclerc on Ferrari's challenge over the final 10 races
“We had to do some extreme changes to tackle them, but that didn’t make us optimise those weekends. Since Hungary we are in a better shape, and we are here to try to maximise whatever the result is.”
In terms of Ferrari’s prospects at the Dutch Grand Prix, Leclerc is expecting a possible repeat of those last two weekends.
“I think we can have a similar weekend to the last two, just because before that I think we haven’t optimised our weekend just by doing some extreme changes to the car and trying to find what was wrong,” the six-time race winner said.
“Once we understood what was wrong, we decided to focus on optimising our weekends, and from that moment onwards the results followed. That will be the objective and the goal for this weekend, just to maximise everything.
“However, I feel like on a track like this, we might struggle a bit more, but if we do absolutely everything right considering the wind conditions of tomorrow and the rain on Saturday, I believe there will be an opportunity.”
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