Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari have the potential to win this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, but that they have “got to be perfect” in order to beat the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull.
Leclerc enters this weekend off the back of two runner-up finishes in Singapore and Austin, with hopes high that the Monegasque driver can go one step further in Mexico.
Despite the upturn in form after several races off the podium, Leclerc believes that both Mercedes and Red Bull still head into this weekend as favourites to take victory on Sunday.
“It’s getting very close and we have good momentum with Singapore and Austin,” said Leclerc during Thursday’s media day in Mexico City.
“We have maximised our potential and I was relatively happy with the pace we’ve shown. Whether we are the favourites this weekend, I don’t fully agree, I think Mercedes remain the favourites wherever we go.
“I think Red Bull are very strong recently, but if we maximise everything we have, then I hope it can be a great weekend for us.
“And as we’ve seen, I think the optimisation of our package is what eventually will make most difference. It’s so difficult to put everything in the right window coming into Qualifying that if we manage to do so, then I think we’ve got a chance here, but for that we’ve got to be perfect.”
Leclerc has only taken one victory so far this year, at the British Grand Prix back in July, and has yet to claim a pole position despite being regarded as one of Formula 1’s strongest qualifiers.
Leclerc admitted that one of Ferrari‘s weakest points was optimising its package in Qualifying, especially with regards to putting the tyres in the ideal operating window.
“We’ve got a strong car but a car that is very sensitive whenever we get off the optimum window and we’ve paid a little bit the price recently in Q3, particularly when the track temperatures are going down,” said Leclerc.
“We just struggle a bit more compared to the others to just keep everything in the right window. That’s what happened in Austin unfortunately on the lap that counted the most and eventually we lost a front row because of that.
“It’s a limitation we know and that we are focused on. Whether we have the solution short-term I’m not sure, but at least it’s a point of focus and something that we’ll make sure to try and get as right as possible coming Saturday here.”
