Charles Leclerc admits finishing third in the Drivers’ standings would be “crazy” after his first year with Ferrari.
A run of four podiums, including two wins, put the Monegasque in pole position to claim the ‘best of the rest’ spot behind the two Mercedes following the summer break.
Currently, Leclerc holds a 14-point advantage over Max Verstappen with teammate Sebastian Vettel a further five behind, and he admits holding onto that position would be significant.
“It’s definitely not for the gala, and it’s not to take the leadership [at Ferrari],” he said. “But being third in the Formula 1 world championship would be crazy.
“Last year I was fighting for 13th position, and I never imagined I would be fighting for a podium in the world championship this year, so just for personal achievement, it would be great and I would be extremely happy.
“After the first four or five races, I never imagined I’d find myself in this position at that moment of the year,” Leclerc admitted.
“I worked a lot on qualifying at the beginning of the season. I changed a few things, it went quite a lot better from France onwards.
“I’m very satisfied with the season. I had no expectations in terms of results, but I wanted progression. So on that, I’m very happy.”
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Before the year, many had predicted that Leclerc would give Vettel a tough run for his money and as well as likely outscoring the German, the 22-year-old has also already out-qualified his teammate, including taking seven poles.
“Charles has done a very good job in qualifying, I don’t think it’s right to sit here and not mention that. That needs to be appreciated,” Vettel noted.
“I didn’t have great sessions in qualifying, maybe things didn’t come together the way I like, here and there I think I missed out in qualifying for different reasons.
“Overall I can’t be happy with how qualifying was this year. The goal is for the final races is to make sure we have a good Saturday and not only a good Sunday.”
As for finishing third, however, Seb isn’t giving up just yet.
“The ambition is to finish third, obviously we can’t finish first and second, so we’ll try to finish third,” he concluded.
Ferrari’s poor race in Austin may have surprised many, with Leclerc finishing 45 seconds behind Verstappen, but the Dutchman doesn’t think that can lead to a late-season charge.
“I think the gap to third is quite big. It might be a little bit too big to close, but let’s see,” he said post-race in Austin.
“[The race] was good for that but my last few races we lost so many points, that was not ideal. I expect we will be competitive in the last two races so let’s see how it will all work out for us.
“It is of course always better to finish third than fourth or fifth, even though I think everybody wants to be first, but we will try everything we can.”