‘Never say never’ on title, but Leclerc focusing on Ferrari constructors’ hopes

Charles Leclerc believes he still has an outside chance of winning Formula 1's drivers’ championship this year but is focusing on the more realistic target of Ferrari winning the constructors’ crown.

A Ferrari one-two in the United States Grand Prix saw Leclerc lead home Carlos Sainz and close the gap to Max Verstappen to 79 points in the drivers’ standings. With a maximum of 146 points still available, Leclerc admits he isn’t ruling out a consistently strong end to the season giving him a chance, but that he will need a lot of luck to be brought truly into the fight.

“I mean, never say never,” Leclerc said. “Let's say that for the constructors’, 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.

“With the drivers’, I see it a bit in a different way. Even if we do everything `perfect, I feel like it will require a little bit of luck inside that to try and get that title, and we cannot really rely on luck. So the drivers’ seems to be quite unlikely, but again, I'll believe in it until it's mathematically impossible."

Ferrari is now just 48 points adrift of McLaren in the fight for the constructors’ championship, and eight behind Red Bull in second place. After a run of four strong performances on different tracks, Leclerc says success from the team’s point of view has to be the main target for the remaining five races of the season.

“We've got to target winning the constructors’ title. It's an optimistic goal, but that's what we are here for. We'll do the math at the end of the season," he said. "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.”