Charles Leclerc has admitted that Ferrari doesn’t quite have the raw speed to compete with McLaren for this year’s constructors’ title, but he is banking on consistency to keep them in the running for the championship. While McLaren has surged ahead as the team to beat, overtaking Red Bull in the standings, Ferrari’s recent improvements have kept them in the mix for an outside shot at the title.

With just six races remaining, McLaren leads Red Bull by 31 points, and Ferrari sits 34 points behind in third place. Although Lando Norris’ dominant win in Singapore suggests McLaren’s momentum won’t slow down any time soon, Leclerc isn’t ready to give up. Despite Ferrari lacking the pace to directly challenge, he believes staying consistent could still pay off.

“If we can keep delivering and avoid missed opportunities, we’ll see where we stand at the end. Hopefully, that will be enough to get the constructors’ title,” Leclerc said after finishing fifth in Singapore. “But, to be honest, on pure pace, we’re not there yet. I don’t see us in the fight unless McLaren slips up, but if they do, we could find ourselves right back in it.”

Leclerc is cautious about reading too much into Ferrari’s recent performances in Monza, Baku, and Singapore, noting they don’t fully reflect whether Ferrari has truly solved its issues, particularly in high-speed corners, where they’ve struggled since mid-season.

“As good as the last two races were, we’ve always been saying not to get carried away. McLaren still has a much better car than us, and by a good margin,” he explained. “We’ll be close at some tracks, but at others, we’ll struggle. Even before this race, we knew we were never the fastest, except maybe in Monaco, and Monza was strong for us too.”

Carlos Sainz, who had a rough weekend in Singapore after crashing out in Q3, says Ferrari is still focused on catching Red Bull for second place, even if McLaren seems out of reach.

"McLaren definitely has the upper hand; they’re the favorites now,” said Sainz. “But we’ve still got Red Bull in our sights, and if McLaren has issues, we’ll be ready to capitalize.”

When Sainz was asked whether finishing second behind McLaren would still be a good result, he replied, “It would show the team’s resilience after a tough season where we lost a lot of points and fell behind in development. But Red Bull will come back strong with upgrades by the end of the season once they figure out their issues, so beating them won’t be easy either.”