Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc confirmed that the Maranello team is focused on its own performance at Circuit of the Americas in the United States Grand Prix weekend, but at the same time Charles admitted he was happy to see both SF21 cars finish the qualifying ahead of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, considering the direct battle for third place in the Formula 1 Constructor Standings.
Charles Leclerc will start today’s race at COTA from fourth place, just ahead of his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz, as both drivers benefit from a five-place grid penalty for Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas. After a rather difficult Friday practice with an SF21 car which lacked rear-end grip, Charles Leclerc admitted that his performance should be considered a much better result than anticipated.
“It went better than expected. We expected to be behind the McLaren this weekend, and it seems that we are more competitive than what we thought. So, it’s a good surprise and it’s nice to see that.” – Charles Leclerc explained.
Despite the fact that the Monegasque driver was delighted with the Maranello team’s pace and performance edge over rivals McLaren which the Italian outfit trails by just 7.5 points in the Constructors’ standings, Charles Leclerc pinpointed that Ferrari was focused in priority on doing its own thing.
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“We try not to focus too much on the others, because this takes off an edge for nothing. So we try to focus on ourselves try to maximize the potential of the car, especially on my side, it was a very tricky day. I lost a lot of confidence in the car in the second run in FP3 and then we built that confidence back in qualifying and everything went our way. So we try to focus on ourselves and then we’re confident that the results will come.” – the Monegasque driver explained.
One major factor for today’s race will be tyre management and Charles Leclerc will start the United States Grand Prix on Sunday on Pirelli’s medium tyre, like most of the drivers in the top 10, but unlike Carlos Sainz:
“Everything came together, especially on the medium” he said. “On the first set in Q2, we did not expect to go to Q3 with that set, so it was a good surprise. And Everything is looking good for tomorrow.” – he concluded.
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