Charles Leclerc not bothered by a potential challenge from George Russell and Lando Norris in the championship standings

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed he wasn't bothered about his Drivers championship battle against George Russell and Lando Norris for P6 in the standings.

The Monegasque driver has had a pretty uneven season thus far owing to some of his mistakes and the inconsistent performances of the SF-75 in 2023. He has only managed three podiums so far all coming on sprint weekends and is yet to register a race win like his teammate this year.

He is currently 20 points ahead of both Lando Norris and George Russell. But in his pre-race interview ahead of the Qatar GP, Charles Leclerc said:

"I don‘t mind tbh. I mean we are fighting, I don‘t even know whether it‘s fifth or sixth in the Drivers' championship, and this is not really what matters to me."

He continued:

"Of course my target is to beat everyone until the end of the season, even though Red Bull is a bit in the league of their own, especially Max, but to do the best job possible in the last part of the season, and if we do that, that means we are infront of them in the championship, which is good, but again, it‘s not something that excites me particularly."

Charles Leclerc added that he was more looking forward to helping Ferrari clinch P2 in the Constructor's Championship, adding:

"I am a bit looking more forward to the Constructors championship, that should be a bit tighter. The second place is still to fight for, which is a bit more interesting. We will try to beat Mercedes and also McLaren."

Charles Leclerc analyzes the second half of the season thus far

The Ferrari driver recognized that they were aware of the distance between them and Red Bull but were happy with the progress that they had made since Zandvoort.

He said:

"I think we are more happy with what we've learned than depressed with the distance to Red Bull. It's because I think with what we learned, we can do a significant step in the future, which hopefully will help us to close the gap to Red Bull as soon as possible.”

It will be interesting to see if Ferrari and Charles Leclerc can take advantage of the upturn in form they found in the second half of the season. He will likely finish ahead of Norris and Russell in the driver's championship and help the Italian team get P2 in the Constructor's title battle against Mercedes.