Mexico City, Oct 24 : Charles Leclerc has tempered expectations of further podiums this season despite securing his first top-three finish since Belgium at the United States Grand Prix last week. The Ferrari driver's third-place in Austin marked his and the team's sixth podium of 2025 ' five of which have been third places and one a second place in Monaco.

'I am not surprised by the fact that we are missing a bit more performance going throughout the end of the year, especially considering that probably Mercedes and Red Bull are two of the teams that pushed their development a bit later than other teams,' Leclerc said on Friday. 'If we look at the gap compared to the McLaren, it remained kind of the same. For us, we are more focused on next year, which I hope will help us.'

Ferrari ended car development earlier than most rivals, instead targeting gains through fine-tuning set-up and operations. Leclerc acknowledged that the Austin podium was a much-needed morale boost. 'It has been a long time, and it's good for everybody in the team to finally see a little bit of improvement,' he said. 'But it was a very positive weekend. Whether from now on we can consistently fight for a podium, I think it is a long shot, but I will try to make this happen again this weekend.'

While Leclerc returned to the rostrum, his Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton matched his best finish of the season with fourth place at the Circuit of The Americas ' equalling his result from Silverstone. Still searching for his first podium with Ferrari, Hamilton said he felt increasingly at ease with the car. 'I'm finally feeling like I'm on top of the car,' he said after the race, describing the weekend as a major step forward.

Arriving in Mexico, Hamilton was upbeat about maintaining that trajectory. 'Coming from a positive weekend... I'm confident that this weekend, we can try to do the same again. I think we're on the right path,' he said.

The seven-time World Champion added that progress was the result of patience and teamwork since joining Ferrari this season. 'I feel like we're going in the right direction, and I think ' Rome wasn't built in a day, so it takes time to build,' he said.

'For me, coming into the team, I've wanted to be respectful of the way that they've done things in the past, and just to really observe and see where our strengths and where our weaknesses are, and to highlight where our weaknesses are and areas to work on," he added.

'But I do feel that they have been responding. I think you're starting to see some of the impact of the work that we're doing in the background,' Leclerc said.

/IANS