Ferrari won't get "carried away" even if third in the Constructors' Championship is "realistic" in 2021, says Charles Leclerc.
The Scuderia's performance has been much improved compared to last year at the opening two races, with the Monegasque and teammate Carlos Sainz finishing fourth and fifth at Imola.
And while McLaren has had the slight edge, at least with Lando Norris, Leclerc is sure Ferrari can compete throughout the season.
"I think a realistic goal for this year is to be just behind Red Bull and Mercedes," he said via F1i.com.
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"Realistically, I think it’s going to be very difficult to be able to fight with them, we are too far behind for now.
"But we are in the fight with four, five other teams for the third place in the Constructors’ so it’s going to be a tight fight but if we do everything perfect it’s reachable."
While reclaiming its place in the top three would be symbolic for Ferrari, Leclerc and the entire team know there's a bigger cause in mind going forward.
"The start of 2020 was difficult to just realise the reality of things and to understand we were really a step down compared to 2019," he reflected.
"We went through this process in a good way I think and then we started to work to reconstruct a little bit the whole project and I think the mentality is right, as I said.
"I don’t think we are getting carried away by the fight there is, or by the fight there will be during the season to fight for third in the Constructors’.
"I think everyone is well aware there’s much more to gain to prepare for 2022 in the right way because these new cars will last for a lot longer, for many years, after 2022 so we need to be ready for that."
