Charles Leclerc has asserted that Ferrari is now in a greater position to deal with the “outside noise” that has emanated from the team’s Formula 1 title hopes in 2024.
The Italian marque’s fourth success this season has seen it close to eight points behind second-place Red Bull, while the gap to leaders McLaren stands at 48 points.
But while it remains an outside bet in the three-horse race, Ferrari’s pace in Austin has bolstered expectations that it could still end a title drought dating back to 2008.
Leclerc, who ended up second in 2022, also has a minute chance in the Drivers’ Championship as he also resides in third place, 79 points down with five rounds to go.
However, the Monegasque argues that Ferrari is better prepared now than when he was runner-up to Max Verstappen to manage the pressure in a championship duel.
“Yes, I think I’ve learned to deal with it,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week in Mexico surrounding the expectation of being a Ferrari driver.
“I’ve always said that I think one of the best things of a team like Ferrari is the passion, and people at the factory won’t count the extra hours they’ve got in the team.
“However, sometimes this exact same passion can be difficult to manage, because passion means also emotions, and it means that in good times you go super high with the emotions.
“But in difficult times you take it a lot more, it’s a lot more difficult to deal with it.
“However, now since 2019 I’m with the team, and we’ve been working a lot on that, and I think we are much more prepared to face those kind of ups and downs.
“I don’t think we are as influenced by the outside noise around the team, than we were maybe two, three, four years ago.
“So from that I don’t think that it has any influence, and actually we don’t really realise that inside the team, we are just motivated and happy about the actual situation.
“We are in a good place, and we are working in the right direction, but we don’t really pay attention to what’s being said outside.”
Ferrari’s consistency key to F1 title bid
Leclerc’s third win this term also represented his fourth podium in five rounds since the summer break, during which time no driver has accumulated more points (98).
The now eight-time F1 race winner contends that Ferrari being the most consistent team since the campaign resumed has been integral to its renewed title ambitions.
“We’ve been very consistent and I think we’ve been maximising our performance which is the most important thing,” he explained.
“I don’t think we’ve been necessarily the fastest out of those last few races.
“However, we were the most consistent and we’ve maximised most points against our competitors.
“We had the best car in Austin, though, which is a good thing, because especially coming to the last five races that’s what we needed.
“It’s the best possible way to start this triple header, but before that I don’t think we had the strongest car.
“But we were doing the best job as a team trying to bring maximum points home. So yeah that’s our goal this season and I hope it will pay off.”
Leclerc is also anticipating Ferrari’s SF-24 car to be competitive again at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, although he has admitted that there are no guarantees.
Leclerc expects strong Mexico showing
“Last weekend went extremely well for us,” he highlighted. “We were particularly strong in races and in race pace. In qualifying, we struggled a little bit more.
“However, on the paper, Mexico should be quite a good track for us. That doesn’t mean we’ll reduce the kind of performance we’ve done in Austin.
“We just need to focus on ourselves.
“Focus on FP2 for me. I will be doing FP1. Ollie [Bearman] will be in the car for FP1. Try and maximise the result this weekend and then we’ll see where it ends up.”
READ MORE: Why Charles Leclerc didn’t lift Pirelli’s Heroo trophy at US GP
