‘We’ve got to keep the focus’ – Leclerc hopeful Ferrari can close in on McLaren for constructors’ title

Charles Leclerc says that there is “a lot of motivation” at Ferrari as they set their sights on the constructors’ championship, with the Monegasque hopeful that the team can “come back to McLaren” at the top if they continue to maximise their consistency and bring home points.

The Scuderia closed the gap to the leaders in the standings with their strong performance last time out in Austin, Leclerc having led home team mate Carlos Sainz in a one-two result. This has put them just eight points behind Red Bull in second place, while McLaren are 48 points ahead at the top.

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When asked if he expects a repeat of this during the upcoming Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, Leclerc suggested that the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez should be a decent track for Ferrari “on paper”.

“It's very difficult to predict this season race by race,” the 27-year-old conceded. “Last weekend went extremely well for us. We were particularly strong in races and in race pace. In qualifying, we struggled a little bit more.

“However, on paper, Mexico should be quite a good track for us. But that doesn't mean we'll reproduce the kind of performance we've done in Austin – we just need to focus on ourselves, focus obviously on FP2 for me, I won't be doing FP1, Ollie [Bearman] will be in the car for FP1.

“And yeah, just try and maximise the result this weekend, and then we'll see where it ends up, but it's obviously a very important part of the season, only five races to go, and there's the constructors’ title, that is still possible, so we'll give absolutely everything in order to try and take that one.”

Reflecting on the fact that he has won two of the last four races – as well as continuing to score a good amount of points at other events – Leclerc acknowledged: “We've been very consistent and I think we've been maximising our own performance, which is the most important thing.

“I don't think we've been necessarily the fastest out of those last few races. However, we were the most consistent and we've maximised most points against our competitors.

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“We had the best car in Austin, though, which is a good thing, because especially coming to the last five races, that's what we needed, and it's the best possible way to start this triple header.

“But before that, I don't think we had the strongest car, but we were doing the best job as a team in order to bring the maximum points home. So, yeah, that's our goal until the end of the season, and I hope it will pay off at the end.”

And in terms of the current vibe within the squad, Leclerc added: “There's a lot of motivation within the team. We have done some steps forward in the last few races and we know that the constructors’ is possible.

“So we've got to keep the focus at 100 in the next few races and hopefully come back to McLaren in the constructors’.”

From Sainz’s perspective, Ferrari’s chances of taking the constructors’ championship may be influenced by how well the five upcoming tracks suit their car – as well as how their rivals fare at each circuit.

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“I think we are in the fight and we’re going to fight it until the end,” said the Spaniard. “Obviously McLaren I think is a very strong package as we’ve seen in all the previous races, leading up to Austin and even in Austin.

“McLaren in the race – I think if the start had gone a bit more their way, they would have been a very difficult team to beat. I think it will come down a lot to track characteristics between the top four teams, see which circuit adapts best to each car.

“Hopefully Mexico is another good track for Ferrari and we can keep the momentum up, but I’m sure when we go to Qatar it will be tricker for us.”