Charles Leclerc says Formula One title is an ‘optimistic’ goal for Ferrari

AUSTIN – Ferrari last won a Formula One title in 2008 but their one-two at the United States Grand Prix on Oct 20 put the constructors’ championship firmly in their sights.

Race winner Charles Leclerc said as much, even if he described it as still an “optimistic” target with five rounds remaining.

McLaren are 40 points clear of champions Red Bull with Ferrari third and a further eight behind, but the Italian team took a hefty 55-point haul from Austin – the tally boosted by a sprint weekend.

That was 27 more than McLaren and 26 more than Red Bull managed, as well as being the team’s biggest single weekend score of 2024.

Ferrari have outscored Red Bull in five of the last seven races but McLaren only twice in the same period.

“We’ve got to target winning the constructors’ title. It’s an optimistic goal, but that’s what we are here for,” Leclerc, 27, said.

“It’s been a really good weekend for the team... hopefully at the end of the year, when we do the math, we will have won the constructors’ title.

“If we do everything perfect until the end of the season, no matter what McLaren does, if we do better than them, I think we can still clinch that title.”

Teammate Carlos Sainz, who finished second at the Circuit of the Americas, said the next race in Mexico and the Las Vegas round in November should be good for Ferrari.

“I’m basing myself a bit on last year. This year everything seems a bit different,” he added.

“I think Qatar is going to be a bit our bogey track... and then Abu Dhabi I’m not sure.

“I just hope this pace shows itself again before the end of the season and gives me another chance of going at it,” added the Spaniard, who is leaving for Williams at the end of the season to make way for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari have won more races (247) and constructors’ titles (16) than any other team, but their last was in 2008 with Brazilian Felipe Massa and Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion.

Leclerc also won the Monaco Grand Prix and Italian Grand Prix this season and sits third in the drivers’ standings behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who tangled late in the race in a sequence that saw Norris receive a substantial penalty.

Norris caught Verstappen and passed him for third, but he left the track to do so. The ensuing five-second penalty he received at the end of the race pushed him behind Verstappen and back to fourth place.

Said Verstappen: “I have my opinion about his move, but I’ll leave it to the stewards. I don’t need to say anything here...

“It was a difficult race for me. I never had the pace to attack and defending was quite difficult with understeer. It was a tough battle and tough to keep him (Norris) behind but it’s a great result.”

Asked how much of a “killer” it was for the championship, Briton Norris replied: “Quite a bit. It’s a momentum killer.

“But we came in here with our mind open, not expecting to dominate or just win or anything. The fact that Ferrari was so quick today showed they’re just as competitive.

“Even if I came around Turn 1 in first, I would never have finished first or second and I only could have finished third. But the one guy I need to beat is Max and that’s the guy I didn’t beat today.”

On the incident with Verstappen, he added: “I think Turn 1, I didn’t do the correct thing, but I feel like what happened at the end of the race was more on my side... We just didn’t come out on top because I didn’t do a good enough job.

“If I defended better in Turn 1 and wasn’t driving like a muppet, then I should have led after Turn 1, and we shouldn’t have had this conversation in the first place.”

His McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri finished a place behind him in fifth and George Russell of Mercedes took sixth spot after starting from the pit lane.

Sergio Perez was seventh in the second Red Bull ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Haas, Liam Lawson of RB and Franco Colapinto of Williams.

Hamilton spun out around Turn 19 and was the only driver not to complete the race. REUTERS, AFP