Leclerc: P3 the target but ‘very difficult’

Jamie Woodhouse
Charles-Leclerc-PA

Charles Leclerc wants P3 in Constructors' Championship but knows it will be "very difficult".

Charles Leclerc says P3 in the Constructors’ Championship is the target for Ferrari, but it will be “very, very difficult” to achieve.

2020 in general has been a year to forget for the Scuderia who have fallen well behind their rivals Mercedes at the top of the sport, collecting only three podium finishes this season.

However, recent races have been a slight improvement with Ferrari now challenging the likes of Racing Point, Renault and McLaren for pure pace.

And after finishing P3 and P4 at the Turkish Grand Prix, Ferrari are now also back in the battle for P3 in the Constructors’ Championship with that trio.

But, due to the damage of earlier races, they are the underdogs in that battle with 130 points while current P3 outfit Racing Point sit on 154.

It is then, a “very, very difficult” target for Ferrari to aim at, but it’s a challenge that Leclerc is absolutely taking on.

“That’s definitely the target but realistically it’s going to be very, very difficult,” he told reporters ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“We need to have three perfect weekends so we need to focus on ourselves and see whether we can make it or not.

“I believe it will obviously depend on how good the work we do [is] and how consistent they [rivals] will be in the next three weekends.”

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Bahrain is a circuit that Leclerc knows well and enjoys. Back in 2017 he pulled off a sensational drive to victory in the F2 Sprint Race on the alternate strategy, while in 2019 he claimed pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix in only his second race for Ferrari. That was also the first pole of his career.

A power unit failure would cruelly cost him a chance at victory, so this time around Leclerc is looking to set the record straight and take advantage of Ferrari’s traditional strength at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Ferrari have won the Bahrain Grand Prix six times, more than any other constructor in Formula 1.

“It [2019 Bahrain GP] was a painful one obviously,” he admitted.

“I had my first pole so that’s a very good memory and then unfortunately in the race we had a technical problem that stopped us from winning.

“We were very competitive and in the past also Ferrari has always been competitive here so hopefully we can have a good weekend starting from tomorrow.”

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