Leclerc reveals key McLaren condition for Ferrari title chance

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari can fight for the F1 constructors’ championship, but that any such challenge may be contingent upon the current leaders making errors.

The seven-time grand prix winner also cautioned against getting caught up by “wrong expectations”, with Ferrari now trailing McLaren by 75 points with six rounds to go.

After the Italian Grand Prix, the Scuderia had closed to only 39 points behind then-leaders Red Bull, but consecutive strong rounds for McLaren has opened up a comfortable 41 point gap to the reigning champions, with the Maranello squad further back.

Despite the points swing, Ferrari has shown strong pace in Azerbaijan and Singapore, even if a poor qualifying performance did handicap the Italian team’s points return at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

However, Leclerc believes McLaren still enjoys a considerable pace advantage, meaning Ferrari’s championship challenge could come down to mistakes from the Woking-based team.

When asked by RacingNews365 about the constructors’ title hunt, the 26-year-old replied: “As much as the last two races were good, I think we’ve always been saying we need to be careful to not have wrong expectations, because McLaren still have a better car than us by quite a bit.

“We have some tracks where we’ll be very close, some others where we’ll be further away.

“So I don’t see ourselves too much in the fight, but if they do mistakes, then we might end up in the fight, like we are now.”

Ferrari must avoid ‘missed opportunities’

Having qualified in ninth and tenth respectively in Singapore, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz recovered to fifth and seventh, respectively, by the chequered flag.

But the Monegasque feels he and his team-mate need to avoid missing opportunities during the run-in to stand any chance of being in with a chance come Abu Dhabi in December, arguing that on pace alone, Ferrari is not yet able to compete for the title.

“Before [the Singapore Grand Prix], we’re quite close, and we never really had the fastest car, apart from Monaco, maybe, and Monza Where we were quite strong as well, but even Monza, you could argue… anyway,” Leclerc added.

“I think if we keep being consistent and not having too many missed opportunities, we will do the count at the end, and hopefully it will be enough to get the constructors’. But on pure pace, I don’t think we are yet at the level to fight for the constructors’.”