F1 News
Can Leclerc dream big this season? 'That goal is feasible'
While Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are the two title rivals at the moment in Formula One, thanks to his win in Monza, Charles Leclerc managed to get closer to the duo ahead of him in the drivers' standings. As an outsider, how big could the Monegasque driver dream? Leclerc answered about his ambitions this year in Baku.
For now, even as the schedule seems to favour Ferrari in terms of tracks, Leclerc think the drivers' title is rather unrealistic. "Yes, there's definitely an opportunity. I think realistically to go and take the drivers' championship is going to require not only a step in performance but probably a little bit of luck as well," he told GPblog among others, as Leclerc currently trails Verstappen by 86 points in the standings.
A more realistic goal for now is indeed the constructors' championship for Ferrari, but the driver believes his still needs to consistently improve. "For the Constructors’ everything is to play for because I think it's 40 something points, which with two drivers in one team, it's feasible. So on that we've got our chances and it's a target we should fix ourselves."
"But before that, before thinking about any title, we've got to improve our car, in order to be consistently in the fight with the guys in the front and not be there in one race just because they didn't optimise their package, and then be a little bit more in the back foot, because then otherwise we'll struggle," Leclerc underlined.
Ferrari to rely once again on tyre management?
Two weeks ago in Monza, Leclerc won with a risky one-stop strategy, but his tyres held up. Leclerc hopes that with Ferrari improving on this issue they had the seasons before, this could once again give him an advantage in Baku. "Here it can be a factor. I mean it will be a factor. So here definitely in the past that's where we've been struggling in the race in qualifying we're very strong, but then coming the race we were struggling with tyre management, which this year seems to be a bit more of a strength. I mean quite a bit more if you compare it to the years before so I hope we can use that strength here."
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