'My aim is to be world champion with Ferrari' says Leclerc

Charles Leclerc told AFP his overriding aim was "to be world champion with Ferrari" first before any other rival team on the Formula One grid.

Leclerc was speaking in Singapore ahead of this weekend's 15th round of a season that has proved underwhelming for the Scuderia.

"It's been difficult (the first half of the season), but I'm motivated at 200 percent to get back to last year's form with the car and to once again be fighting for wins," he said.

"Because that's where Ferrari deserves to be," insisted Leclerc, who finished second to Red Bull's Max Verstappen in 2022 but is lagging in sixth place ahead of Sunday's race at Marina Bay.

The 25-year-old from Monaco said it had become evident Ferrari had work to do to catch up on rampant Red Bull after finishing fourth in the season-opener in Bahrain.

"After the first race, we realised we weren't at the level we wanted to be at. But there was a huge response from the team," said Leclerc.

"We're aware we have to make up for lost time, there's still lots of work to be done."

He said the situation had been hard to accept, but once recognised all the focus went on trying to produce a car that could compete with Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

With Verstappen going for his 11th consecutive win and Red Bull having won every race this season, Leclerc recognises Ferrari have their work cut out to gain a win this term.

"To be very honest and realistic, I think that for this year, it's going to be very complicated," he said.

"But I don't think we'll be able to match Red Bull," he cautioned.

"Max is very at ease in the car. He's extremely quick, makes very few, if any mistakes. Red Bull have produced the best car too, they've done a very good job, better than anyone else on the