Leclerc faith in Ferrari crucial improvement

Charles Leclerc has conceded Ferrari needs to take a step forward to be worthy of an F1 world championship but has faith the Scuderia will achieve its targets.

The Leclerc-Ferrari partnership has looked the fastest overall this season yet finds itself 80 points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers' championship and 97 behind Red Bull in the constructors'.

Failings on Ferrari's part, whether it be in the strategy department or reliability, have taken Leclerc out of three race-winning positions, whilst driver errors have accounted for further lost points.

Asked if he believed the Maranello-based team was worthy of being champions, Leclerc replied: "As a team, looking at where we are coming from in the last two years, I do believe it's an incredible step forward.

"On the other hand, obviously, there is another step we need to do and we are working on that but I'm confident that we will do it."

Sainz continues Ferrari defence

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz was set back by two issues at his pit stops, eventually finishing off the podium in fourth.

The Spaniard has been defensive of his team over recent scrutiny surrounding its blunders and when posed with the same question regarding Ferrari's worthiness, he said: "It’s a very difficult question because we did two mistakes at the pit stop but when I think we were lacking pace and I still don’t think we did that many mistakes.

"When you lack pace, as Red Bull did in Austria, nobody said ‘can Red Bull keep doing these mistakes’. It’s just we had a very bad pace."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes

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