'Two wins and it's done': Ferrari's Charles Leclerc warns Max Verstappen

Charles Leclerc remained defiant in the face of more frustration at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend. The Monegasque is confident Ferrari can claw back from its deficit to Red Bull Racing in the remaining 13 races despite losing further ground in Montreal.

The Ferrari ace led the Drivers' Championship by as many as 46 points from Max Verstappen after three races, but a spate of reliability issues has turned the tables around. The Red Bull driver now leads the title race, with Leclerc 49 points behind in third place.

Leclerc suffered engine failures in Spain and Azerbaijan while he was leading the race, and lost a home victory in Monaco owing to a strategy error by Ferrari. New power unit components in Canada saw him start at the back of the grid, which he eventually turned to a fifth place finish.

Verstappen is now considered the favourite for the 2022 Drivers' title, with the Red Bull ace having won six of the nine races thus far. Leclerc, however, is not willing to throw in the towel and believes Ferrari's pace in Canada showed that they can continue to fight, if they fix the reliability issues crippling their title charge.

"Reliability is a concern for everyone this season," Leclerc said. "But if we can fix that, we have the performance to come back and so, from Silverstone, we will be trying to gain points back."

"Forty-nine points? Two victories and it is done!" the Monaco-born driver added, talking about his deficit to Verstappen in the championship.

Verstappen, meanwhile, acknowledged his mammoth lead over Leclerc, but remains cautious as he is aware of how fast the situation can change. The 2021 F1 world champion called for calm from his team, and believes they need to continue to improve their car to stay ahead of Ferrari.

"There is still a very long way to go in the championship and the gap is, of course, quite big, but we have seen and we know it can switch around quite quickly," Verstappen said. "Race three (this year) I was 46 behind, so now we just need to stay calm, need to focus and we need to improve because we're not the quickest."

"Last weekend, it looked good in the race. Now not so good. But we managed to win and that is a quality too and we just have to work together as a team to try and find little improvements."