Charles Leclerc doesn’t expect Ferrari to be in contention to take regular wins during the remaining races of the 2024 Formula 1 season despite his triumph at Monza.
Ferrari returned to the podium’s top step on home soil at the previous race as Leclerc executed a remarkable one-stop to beat both McLarens at the Italian Grand Prix.
Leclerc’s seventh career F1 win represented Ferrari’s best result since the Monegasque was victorious earlier on in the season at the Monaco Grand Prix back in May.
The Italian marque appeared a genuine championship contender when Leclerc’s maiden success on his home track placed the side 24 points behind leaders Red Bull.
However, Ferrari’s title ambitions were blighted when updates introduced in Spain triggered accentuated bouncing at high speed which hampered its competitiveness.
But while developments at Monza seem to have addressed the issue, Leclerc has discounted Ferrari being a consistent threat at the sharp end in the last eight events.
“I’ve said that after Monaco – and I think we did that – we shouldn’t rely on the race we have just done,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week at Monza.
“And as a team, it’s really important for us that once we come back at the factory tomorrow, we reset from everything that has happened during the weekend.
“We learn from it and we try to analyse everything, but we should leave emotions aside and reset as a team and go again in Baku, not having crazy high expectations
because that’s not where the team is at the moment.
“Monza is a very specific track. We have been very strong this weekend, but Baku will be maybe very different and Singapore again very different. So we’ve got to reset.
“We did that reset from Monaco to Montreal, but as we’ve seen from Monaco to Montreal, it was a really big change from one weekend to another.
“And then we went through three or four of the worst races of the season, just because we were trying to understand what was going on in our car.
“So hopefully we don’t go through three or four very difficult races from now on, and I don’t think it will be the case.
“But again, it’s very important that not only the team, but I think also the expectations from outside don’t become crazy high from one race to another because this is not realistic.
“Have we done a step forward? Yes. Is it enough to go and win races until the end of the season? I don’t think so yet, but we did a good step in the right direction.”
Erstwhile World Champion Nico Rosberg, however, believes that Leclerc’s unexpected win has propelled Ferrari back into the championship picture as an outside bet.
The Maranello-based squad heads into the Baku and Singapore double-header 31 points behind second-place McLaren, with Red Bull eight points further up the road.
“Yes of course it could happen,” Rosberg told the Sky F1 podcast regarding Ferrari claiming the Constructors’ title.
“With the form they have, they are not the favourites. McLaren, by far, are the favourites.
“It depends on this upgrade. The upgrade from Ferrari looked good but Monza is such an outlier track. Is it going to look good at other places?
“We need to wait to have that answer – if it is working so well, it will have an outsider’s shot at taking the constructors’.”
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