What Leclerc and Vasser say after victory in Austin about Ferrari’s revived title hopes

Leclerc absolutely dominated from the first corner to the checkered flag in yesterday’s US GP ahead of his counterpart Carlos Sainz. While Ferrari took the maximum points harvest in Texas, Red Bull left the USA with 15 points from Verstappen who finished third, and McLaren with 22 points from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in positions 4-5.

As a result, in the constructors’ standings, McLaren extended its lead over Red Bull to 40 points, but the Scuderia is now close to 8 b. the Milton Keynes team.

And with performances like yesterday’s, Leclerc and Vasseur reckon the Italian team can be this year’s Formula 1 champions in the next 5 GPs and 2 Sprints by the time the curtain falls on the season.

“Now our goal is the (manufacturers) title.” Leclerc said after the match. “The road is long, but it was a good start to this trio of games (USA, Mexico, Brazil). We had a great pace all three days, especially in the race.

I have to give a big thanks to the engineers because they have been working like crazy for the last few months, bringing upgrades we already had in Singapore here and it seems to be paying off. The team works really well. The pit stops went well. Everything worked perfectly so he is very happy” added Leclerc.

And he concluded, the Monegasque: “After that Sprint dI won’t say we were scared, but I thought the others had improved a lot. However, we managed to stay ahead today. I couldn’t have dreamed of anything better.

It was not an easy three days. We struggled a bit to find the right feel of the car, but I was optimistic that I would feel better in the race, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Vasser: “Everything is possible” for the title

For his part, Fred Wasser, speaking to Sky Sport Italia after the end of the Austin race, said: “The battle has been very close since the beginning of the year. It is decided in the details who will be fastest in each race. We must stay focused until the end, and we must not feel like we are world champions, because we are not.

We have to continue doing the same work and then to Mexico, where at the high altitude there we will face a completely different challenge. Just because you’re fast in Austin doesn’t mean you’ll be fast in Mexico. However, we collected quite a large number of points and we have to go to Mexico with the same motivation.”

Asked about the Scuderia’s chances of winning the title, the Frenchman added: “The title? We have to stay calm, there are still 5 games left. It’s true that there are a lot of points available between now and the end, so we can still achieve some very important results.

Since we also have (two) Sprint, there are about 200 points available, maybe more. That means anything is possible, but it’s important to stay focused for the next match.”Fred Wasser concluded.