Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari must continue to battle for the F1 Constructors’ Championship after a spectacular one-two finish for the team at the 2024 United States GP.
The Monegasque took advantage of the Turn 1 battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to seize the lead despite starting down in P4. From there he never looked back, Ferrari proving to be the team to beat in Austin as Carlos Sainz crossed the line second behind his teammate.
Ferrari now sit just 48 points back of constructors’ championship leaders McLaren, and eight back of Red Bull for second, and Leclerc is adamant the team must continue to push in hopes of claiming the Scuderia’s first title since 2008.
“We’ve got to target winning the constructors’ title,” Leclerc told select members of the press, including Total-Motorsport.com. “It’s an optimistic goal but that’s what we are here for.
“We’ll do the math at the end of the season, but 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.
“Hopefully at the end of the year, when we do the math, we will have won the constructors title.”
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As for the entire race weekend in Austin, Leclerc says he couldn’t have asked for more on Sunday given things didn’t go to plan in Saturday’s Sprint or qualfiying.
“It hasn’t been an easy weekend until now, I struggled a little bit with the feeling in the car, but I had the confidence that in race the feeling was better, and it was the case,” Leclerc stated.
“We thought that the others would improve a lot more, but we still had the upper hand. I’m really happy with today’s 1-2 – we couldn’t have dreamed of better.”
Vasseur keeping feet on the ground
Team principal Frederic Vasseur couldn’t hide his delight after the race, stating that Ferrari made a conscious decision to focus on their race setup after failing to win the Sprint or claim pole on Saturday.
“The whole weekend went well,” Vasseur told Sky Sport F1. “We struggled a bit in qualifying, but that was also a question of setup.
“We focused on the race because it’s possible to overtake here. We took a big step forward. It’s a tight battle and at times it’s the details that can make you faster or slower than the others. We have to remain focused.”
As for whether he believes Ferrari are back in the battle for the constructors’ championship, Vasseur made it clear there is still plenty of racing remaining, and that the Scuderia must maintain their focus at each event.
“There are still five races remaining and around 200 points. We have to remain focused on delivering more good results, we can’ think that it ends here. We must remain calm,” he added.
