Charles Leclerc eyes Ferrari F1 title charge as Lewis Hamilton gets reason to smile

He had a miserable weekend at the United States Grand Prix but Lewis Hamilton will have been cheered up by Ferrari announcing themselves as F1 title contenders

Lewis Hamilton may be about to join a title-winning team as Ferrari eye Formula 1 glory following their United States Grand Prix success.

Charles Leclerc overtook pole-sitter Lando Norris at turn one on the first lap of Sunday’s race and never looked back. He led a first Ferrari one-two on American soil since 2006 which has put the Scuderia within striking distance of McLaren at the top of the constructors’ standings.

With five rounds to go, the Italians are third but only 48 points behind Norris’ team and Leclerc believes they can get the job done. He said: “We have got to target winning the constructors’ title. It is an optimistic goal but that is what we are here for.

“We will do the maths at the end of the season but, until then, I think the best thing we can do is to focus on ourselves, on our own performance It has been a really good weekend for the team and for the constructors’ title, and we will try to reproduce that as often as possible. Hopefully at the end of the year, when we do the maths, we will have won the constructors’ title.”

Leclerc will be joined at Ferrari next year by Hamilton who, in contrast, endured one of the worst race weekends of his entire F1 career. He qualified 19th on Saturday before losing the rear end of his Mercedes on the second lap of the race and beaching the car in a gravel trap.

But the seven-time champion can take comfort from the fact his future employers look to finally be serious contenders again. That is what Hamilton hoped would happen when he decided to swap Mercedes for the famous red team, albeit one without an F1 title success since 2008.

His last big move, from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, was viewed as a massive risk but one which paid off as six drivers’ and eight constructors’ titles followed. Still, he has chosen next year as the right time to end that successful partnership to try something new.

Hamilton will be 40 by the time he races a Ferrari car for the first time and will need this switch to be another masterstroke if he is to become champion again before he retires. Ferrari’s dominance in Texas, as Mercedes struggled with upgrades that did not seem to have the desired effect, was an encouraging sign.

Not that boss Frederic Vasseur will let himself get too giddy about the thought of becoming the first Scuderia chief to win an F1 title in 16 years. The Frenchman said: “We took a big step forward. It is a tight battle and at times it is the details that can make you faster or slower than the others.

“We have to remain focused. There are still five races remaining and around 200 points. We have to remain focused on delivering more good results. We cannot think that it ends here. We must remain calm.”