Charles Leclerc believes it is premature for Sauber to aim for a points finish at each Grand Prix, in spite of his recent strong form.
Leclerc scored a stellar sixth position in Azerbaijan and followed it up with 10th-placed finishes in Spain and Canada, bookending a retirement at his home race in Monaco when a brake disc failed.
While downplaying the chance of battling for points in each race, Leclerc reckons Sauber is now in a position to view Q2 as an attainable target, having made it through to the second phase across the last four events.
“I think we managed to take our opportunity whenever we have one door open, this is the most important [thing], it’s what we have to do this year,” he said.
“I think our target is changing slightly race after race, now I think we can target realistically Q2 even though we are still on the limit of it, but I think we can target it realistically.
“For now I will not target realistically yet points every race as we are still working on it and hopefully we can improve, but this is not the level we are at the moment.
“But we are getting closer and I can really feel the progress we are making race after race.
“It’s great motivation for the whole team and also on my side to be able to fight for points in some races is a great push for the future.”
Leclerc stressed that making Q2 comes down to “taking the opportunity”, due to the tightly-congested nature of Formula 1’s midfield group.
“Weekends after weekends we can see a difference in terms of teams going up and down,” said Leclerc.
“I think Williams are in a bit of a bad place at the moment, struggling at the moment, so hopefully we can keep them behind, but in Formula 1 everyone improves.
“It’s about taking the opportunity in qualifying with the right lap at the right time, with the other teams it’s difficult, it’s up and down.”
