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Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have assessed their chances of closing the gap to constructors’ rivals McLaren in the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix – with the Scuderia just 36 points adrift of McLaren in the title fight, with three rounds to go.
McLaren took over the lead of the constructors’ from Red Bull at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix back in September. But a strong run of form from Ferrari saw them surpass Red Bull for P2 at the Mexico City Grand Prix, and begin their chase down of McLaren.
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With McLaren driver Oscar Piastri hailing Ferrari as favourites going into the Las Vegas Grand Prix – the second running of the event at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit – Scuderia drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz moved to dampen expectations ahead of the weekend.
“I think it’s very calm!” said Leclerc of the mood in the camp at Ferrari, as they target a first constructors’ title win since 2008. “Everybody’s very calm and this is a really good thing. I think it wasn’t like that a year or two years ago. The feeling was very, very different. We would get very excited or be affected a bit more by what was going on. Now it’s not the case anymore.
“I feel like we are a lot more solid as a team and we don’t really get emotionally high or low. We just try to be flat, and that’s thanks to Fred especially,” added Leclerc, referring to the influence of Team Principal Fred Vasseur. “We are quite calm, we’re just trying to focus step by step and take one problem at a time. We’ve got a race to win this weekend and we’ll try to do the best we can to achieve that.”
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Meanwhile, with chilly temperatures forecast in the Nevada desert for the evening qualifying and race sessions, Sainz predicted that that could play a decisive factor in the outcome of the weekend.
“I think looking at the layout of the track you would say yes, Ferrari should be competitive, or at least in the mix,” said Sainz. “When you feel the temperatures and you know how much we struggle sometimes switching on the tyres this year and everything else, then definitely not. So there’s two factors – we’ll see how they clash with each other and who performs better this weekend.”
Speaking of Ferrari’s chance of taking the constructors’ title, meanwhile, Sainz said: “I think we are within reach of it, but at the same time we need McLaren to do some mistakes.
“If they don’t put a foot wrong from here to the end, it doesn’t matter if we win and come second every race, I think McLaren can probably still hang onto it. There are also two tracks [in Qatar and Abu Dhabi] that are more McLaren than Ferrari. This one is more Ferrari than McLaren, but at the same time, the temperature is not, so we’ll see how it pans out.
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“I would love to win the championship for Ferrari this year,” added Sainz, who will leave the team for Williams at the end of the year. “I think it would be a great way to sign off the season. At the same time, we went through a very tough patch there in the middle that could cost us. We’ll see how we deal with it now.”
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