'He's behind you!' Leclerc targets Norris and doesn't rule out F1 title

But after a mid-season dip in form — which included a DNF in Canada and no-point finishes at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone — coinciding with the simultaneous rise of McLaren, Leclerc’s chances of winning Ferrari’s first drivers’ world championship since 2007 are slim-to-none.

In fact, betting odds suggest he has just a 2% chance of overhauling his current 79-point gap to Verstappen in the drivers’ standings — a feat which even Leclerc acknowledges will take an incredible set of circumstances..

“I mean, never say never,” he said in a post-US GP press conference. “[But] even if we do everything perfectly, I feel like it will require a little bit of luck inside that to try and get that [drivers’] title, and we cannot really rely on luck.

“So, the drivers’ [championship] seems to be quite unlikely. But again, I will believe in it until it’s mathematically impossible.”

In the five rounds that remain, Leclerc would realistically need to win every remaining grand prix and sprint race with Verstappen finishing, on average, fifth or lower in each (while also setting no more than three fastest laps) in order to claim the title in Abu Dhabi.

Based on recent form, Leclerc may well keep winning, but it’s hard to see a consistent run of poor results for Verstappen in a reliable Red Bull, which looked to be more competitive after a set of upgrades fitted at COTA.

The Dutchman showed sprint-winning pace in Austin and narrowly missed out on pole position for the US Grand Prix; the sort of form that will make it all but impossible for Norris and Leclerc to catch him.

But while top spot in the drivers’ standings looks out of reach, Norris’s second place in the standings looks vulnerable to a resurgent Leclerc.

In his first year of realistic title contention, Norris and his team have made a number of critical slip-ups which have cost him dearly.

At Silverstone, a late-race strategy blunder saw Norris forfeit a likely win to Lewis Hamilton, who undercut his fellow countryman after making an earlier switch to slick tyres on a drying track. He was also later demoted to third by a blisteringly quick Verstappen.

Three races later at Monza, Norris lost another possible victory — this time to Ferrari — as the Briton started on pole but was overtaken by team-mate Oscar Piastri and Leclerc on the first lap, with the latter going on to win courtesy of an inspired one-stop strategy.

And then at COTA, Norris failed to shut the door on Verstappen in the run down to Turn 1 and allowed himself to be pushed wide, leaving the door open for Leclerc to breeze by both title contenders and ultimately lead the rest of the Grand Prix.

There have been other errors too, such as glancing the wall while leading comfortably in Singapore, which all raise doubts that Norris can put together a consistent sequence of victories in the final five races that will put pressure on Verstappen.

And that offers an opportunity for Leclerc to close the gap to Norris by the time the chequered flag falls in Abu Dhabi on December 8.

Over the five grands prix and two sprint races remaining, Leclerc can overhaul the McLaren driver by outscoring him by an average of five points each race weekend.

Since the summer break, both drivers have scored an identical 98 points, but it would only take another two weekends like Austin — where Leclerc scored 12 more points than Norris, helped by the sprint race — for the Ferrari driver to become Verstappen’s closest challenger.

The momentum may be with Ferrari too. While the team didn’t bring an aerodynamic upgrade package to the last race, team boss Fred Vasseur has admitted that it has been working on less visible improvements to keep the car competitive.

If Ferrari and Leclerc do continue to close the points gap to McLaren and Norris, then McLaren may need to ask Norris to abandon his declining hopes of winning the title in an effort to secure the constructors’ championship.

For example, there are situations where it would make sense for Norris to delay the Red Bulls or Ferraris to the detriment of his own race.

For now, however, all is still to play for, and as long as that’s the case, the scene is set thrilling high-stakes battle between some of F1’s most exciting drivers.