Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc feels that the intense fight for third place in the 2021 Formula 1 Constructor Standings with McLaren will be won by the side that eventually makes fewer mistakes in the last four races of the season.
McLaren took an unexpected 1-2 finish in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza a few months ago, which made them favourites for a place behind Mercedes and Red Bull in the final standings, but the Maranello team was able to fight back the last races and has recovered the gap: also thanks to an upgraded hybrid system on its power unit, the Italian side was able to constantly outscore its rivals and now has a 13.5-point advantage at the end of the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ended the Mexican race in P5 and P6, as while McLaren could score only one as a result of Lando Norris’ tenth place, with Daniel Ricciardo outside the points zone due to the first lap incident with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
Despite the upturn in form from Ferrari, Charles Leclerc is aware that speed might not be the deciding factor in the fight during the final races:
“It’s going to be up to which team is going to do the least mistakes because we are very, very closely matched. There might be races where we are a bit in front, and some others where they are a bit in front. But I don’t think this will make the difference. I think the one who will do the next big mistakes will win, and I think today has been a good example of this. We’ve taken a big opportunity with both of the McLarens quite far behind. We managed to get quite a bit of points, which I think is an important time for the third place in the championship.” – the Monegasque driver explained.
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl said the Mexico setback was no reason for McLaren to keel over in the battle against Ferrari, saying difficult days could easily happen the other way around.
“The most important thing is to accept is that days like today can happen in racing, they’re part of the sport. At the same time, they can happen to your competitor. So there is no reason to give up this fight. It’s important to move on. Luckily there is another race straightaway next weekend, and then we can try to strike back. Of course it’s disappointing for us today to only score one point, which is a big hit for scoring in the constructors’ championship. But again, the same can happen to our competitors. We just have to stay focused on ourselves, and make sure that we keep scoring points consistently, which we didn’t manage today.” – he added.
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Carlos Sainz added: “It’s going to be super tight to the end. You get an example of today, in Turn 1, Daniel was ahead of us and that’s a fact.
“McLaren is in the mix in every weekend. Then obviously he had a crash. Up until Turn 1 there was a McLaren in front of the two Ferraris. They have their strengths. They have very good starts, they have a car that is very good in high-speed corners. So as soon as we go to tracks that are more favourable to them, like Monza or Sochi where they were miles ahead, then it’s going to be tricky to beat them. What this new power unit has allowed us is to keep ourselves in in the mix in every track and put up a good fight, and at the moment we are executing that fight nicely and we are finally ahead in the championship.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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