Charles Leclerc believes that a “race win is possible” for Ferrari in the US GP based on the team’s performance in Saturday’s sprint.
However he cautions that Red Bull and McLaren may have improved their cars with changes made before qualifying.
Carlos Sainz finished second and Leclerc fourth in the sprint, and they appeared to potentially have the fastest cars on the track over the full distance.
In qualifying for the main event they earned third and fourth, with Sainz again ahead.
Leclerc acknowledged that Lando Norris and Max Verstappen were out of reach over one lap.
“None of us were capable of going to fight with the top two, they were too fast, but that’s also what we expected as a team,” he said.
“The first sector in qualifying yesterday and today, we knew we have a limitation in our car at the moment, and none of the setup options we thought of would cure that issue.
But in the race, we have a lot less that issue, and so that’s why I’m a bit more optimistic for tomorrow’s race.
Asked if a win was possible he said: “If we see the same race pace as today, I think it is. I think McLaren and Red Bull, most likely will do a step forward in terms of car setup for tomorrow, and we need to see how much of a step forward that is on lap times. But if we see the same race pace as this morning, for sure, the race win is possible.”
Ferrari came to Austin with an unchanged car, and Leclerc suggested that the team is learning more about the updates introduced in recent races.
“I think we did, if I assess what we see and what we feel from the beginning of the weekend,” he said.
“But tomorrow is the real test, obviously, with the whole race, but if we see a similar pace to this morning, tomorrow in the race, I think we did a step forward, for sure, because it’s normally quite a good track to look at all characteristics of a car.”
Regarding potential tyre issues in the race he said: “I think it’s quite balanced. So as a driver, you can play with either you want to have front degradation or rear degradation. So it depends a little bit how you drive. And yeah, we’ll see how everybody manages tyres.”
