Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz believe that Ferrari's 1-2 result at the United States Grand Prix puts it firmly in the hunt for Formula 1's constructors' championship., as it now sits 48 points behind leader McLaren.
Ferrari took a 26-point chunk out of Red Bull in the constructors' standings to sit just eight points behind the reigning champion outfit after the Austin race and 48 points adrift of McLaren, as Leclerc and Sainz took control at the front.
Leclerc had gathered the lead through an opportunistic switch-back into Turn 1, where he moved ahead of the pack as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris battled off the front row.
The drivers had tentatively stated before the race that its performance at the Circuit of the Americas was going to be the litmus test of its progression through the year; despite Leclerc pointing to 'limitations' with the bumpiness of the opening sector in qualifying, the team's race performance was a clear step up.
Leclerc said that the Scuderia was now firmly targeting the teams' title, and feels that it is in good shape both technically and operationally to do so.
"It hasn't been an easy weekend until now, I struggled a little bit with the feeling in the car, but I had the confidence that in race the feeling was better and it was the case," Leclerc reflected.
"We thought that the others would improve a lot more, but we still had the upper hand. I'm really happy with today's 1-2 - we couldn't have dreamed of better.
"It was a pretty good Turn 1, that's exactly what I wanted to do, we had a really good launch. In the second stint, it was all about managing behind, but we did a great job, the pace of the car was really good and that's mostly thanks to the engineers.
"They have been working like crazy over the last few months to bring the upgrades that we had in Singapore and the last few races and it seems to be paying off.
"The whole team is working super well, the pitstops were really good, everything worked out well so I'm really happy. Now we are still targeting the title. It's a long way to go but a good start to this triple header."
Sainz echoed Leclerc's ambition, explaining that the SF-24 has proven to be strong in races where degradation is a key factor and this has allowed it to be more aggressive.
He reckoned that he "got the worst" of the Verstappen and Norris battle in front, which cost him the chance to move higher than third, but ultimately undercut the Red Bull in the pitstops to clinch second.
"It's a result that puts us where we want to in the fight for the constructors' now, so extremely happy for everyone in Ferrari right now," Sainz remarked.
"At the same time, I knew a lot of the race was going to be decided at the start. I knew Lando and Max were going to go hard in T1 and unfortunately, I got the worst of it and didn't get that lead.
"[Tyre management is] definitely the strength of the car this year, how long we can go on stints and how little deg we have. It's something I enjoy and something that has made me enjoy racing a lot more than last year.
"We spent all of the races defending and losing places; this year it seems like we can go in attack mode and just push and overtake and it's fun. I hope it stays like this."
