By Alan Baldwin
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Ferrari last won a Formula One title in 2008 but Sunday’s one-two win in the U.S. Grand Prix put the constructors’ championship firmly in their sights.
Race winner Charles Leclerc said as much, even if he described it as still an ‘optimistic’ target with five rounds remaining.
McLaren are 40 points clear of champions Red Bull with Ferrari third and a further eight behind, but the Italian team took a hefty 55 point haul from Austin — the tally boosted by a sprint weekend.
That was 27 more than McLaren and 26 more than Red Bull managed, as well as being the team’s biggest single weekend score of the year.
Ferrari have outscored Red Bull in five of the last seven races but McLaren only twice in the same period.
“We’ve got to target winning the constructors’ title. It’s an optimistic goal, but that’s what we are here for,” Leclerc told reporters.
“It’s been a really good weekend for the team…hopefully at the end of the year, when we do the math, we will have won the constructors’ title.
“If we do everything perfect until the end of the season, no matter what McLaren does, if we do better than them, I think we can still clinch that title.”
Team mate Carlos Sainz, who finished second at the Circuit of the Americas, said the next race in Mexico and the Las Vegas round in November should both be good for Ferrari.
“I’m basing myself a bit on last year. This year everything seems a bit different,” he added.
“I think Qatar is going to be a bit our bogey track…and then Abu Dhabi I’m not sure.
“I just hope this pace shows itself again before the end of the season and gives me another chance of going at it,” added the Spaniard, who is leaving for Williams at the end of the season to make way for seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari have won more races (247) and constructors’ titles (16) than any other team, but their last was in 2008 with Brazilian Felipe Massa and Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Michael Perry)
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