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Charles Leclerc reckons Red Bull and Ferrari have been close in terms of performance this season.
In an exclusive with Racingnews365, Leclerc reflected on the season thus far. Despite Red Bull's Max Verstappen on the cusp of his second straight championship, Leclerc said that Ferrari haven't been too far behind Red Bull.
The Monagesque talked about Spa, where Verstappen was untouchable, and Ferrari encountered a few issues, He added how the balance has ebbed and flowed between the two teams in other races, saying:
"Now that we have had a few other races after the race in Spa, we understand a few things better. The car was not in the sweet spot there, and we have now made some steps in that. We had a hard time with two things in Belgium. I don't want to go into too much detail about that, but we probably didn't handle those problems well at the time. "
He added:
"Red Bull have taken bigger steps than us this year, and that's why they are stronger now, but the big difference in Belgium was mainly because we didn't have the pace at all. I don't think the difference in performance between Ferrari and Red Bull is very big. If you look at the season as a whole, we've been very competitive."
Leclerc (237) trails Verstappen (341) by over 100 points. The title race will get over at the Japanese GP in Suzuka this weekend if the Dutchman takes the win and the fastest lap.
We gave away a lot of points - Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc rued Ferrari's lack of consistency during the season. The team lost far too many points to Red Bull's Verstappen, which meant a bonafide title race never materialised. He said:
"The problem is that we didn't perform well every race weekend, so we lost a lot of points. Whatever the reason, it often didn't fall our way on Sunday. We have to work on that as a team, to be better and get better results."
Leclerc added:
"We had already taken a (positive) step in Monza. The circuit was similar to Spa, but it went much better. That was good to see. We were still a bit slower than Red Bull on Sunday, but it certainly wasn't as bad as in Spa the week before."
Charles Leclerc has secured pole in the last two races and will look for a strong finish in Suzuka to delay Verstappen's coronation.
