Charles Leclerc: Next four races will be crucial in title race

Leclerc started the season like a house on fire but has quickly seen his lead evaporate as reigning Red Bull champion Max Verstappen came to the fore, and the Dutchman now enjoys a 49-point lead over his Ferrari rival.

"I think the next four races will be very important, just before the summer break, to go in[to the] holidays with four good races would be great. So now we need to focus on ourself," Leclerc said ahead of Sunday's race at Silverstone.

"I think the performance is there. If we've got clean weekends, I'm pretty sure the results will follow. But again, we just need to focus on ourselves and then the results will come."

Leclerc was then asked if he agreed with Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto that they might not be quite ready yet for championship success, and the Frenchman said he saw it differently.

"It's been a tough time for the team, but I think the way we have worked since the beginning of the season has been extremely good," said Leclerc.

"So this we don't have to change.

"Then of course, there has been some reliability problems that we need to fix as quickly as possible and on that, again, I trust fully the team to get on top of these things as quickly as it can be done.

"It will take time but in the meantime, we just need to focus on the job we have to do on the track and I'm again very confident that if we do everything perfect on track, we have the car and we have the people inside the team for us to win races and to win the championship because ultimately that's the goal.

"So in the last four or five races, it became much more difficult, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. And I still believe in it as much as I did five races ago. It's going to be more difficult, but anything is possible."

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