"I still want to believe we can win a race before the end of the season," says Charles Leclerc after scoring sixth podium of the season.

While finishing third and fourth is what Toto Wolff would describe as a disappointing weekend, for the time being Ferrari has to be satisfied, particularly when on Friday the team was struggling.

Strong performances from both drivers, and an inspired tyre choice by Leclerc, brought one of the best results of the season, though, courtesy of Max Verstappen, the Maranello outfit is in danger of being overhauled by Red Bull.

At a time chairman John Elkann insists that he still has faith in team boss Fred Vasseur, Leclerc remains hopeful that the team can win a race before the end of the season, the Italian outfit currently facing its first season without a single win since 2021.

"The second part of the season hasn't been easy," said Leclerc at race end, "with completely unfounded noise and rumours around the team.

"I think to demonstrate that in those kinds of situations, we can stay focused on the job and be rewarded with a podium is a really nice feeling," he added.

"I'm very happy," he continued. "I'm very happy because obviously we had the gearbox problem (on Friday during practice), which cost us a little bit of laps, which then meant we were a little bit on the back foot trying to recover in the sprint qualifying and sprint race. And then in qualifying, we did some fine-tuning, we found a lot more performance, and today was a really good race for us.

"I still want to believe we can win a race before the end of the season," he said, "but again, I think we need to be realistic in our situation. And I don't think we quite have the car to do so. I think this weekend has been the perfect weekend for the team.

"I'll be surprised if we can achieve anything better until the end of the year. We'll take it race by race and see what can be done."

A significant factor in the Monegasque's race was his decision to start on softs, the only 'big gun' to do so.

"I was a little bit worried when I saw that I was the only car on softs at the beginning," he admitted. "I knew it was a risky move, but what I had in mind was to use the soft to try and get free air, it was quite optimistic because we had two cars in front, but that's what we tried to do."

Teammate Hamilton, who had a late scare when he suffered a puncture on the final lap, almost allowing Oscar Piastri to take advantage, was also happy with the Austin weekend.

"I'm definitely feeling better in the car," he said. "And I'll definitely get a deep dive in these next couple of days, try and figure out how we can extract more from the car. Get the car in a slightly better place, but overall, pretty decent. The team did a great job today.

"We need consistency," he added, "if I can finish there, or even get a podium at some point, just finish ahead of the Mercedes, that is our goal. If I can help the team secure second in the constructors' that would be a good end to the year."

Asked about his last lap scare, he said: "I was like 'Jeez, what's going on?' Somehow, I managed to hold it on in the last few corners, but I had huge understeer.

"I thought the front wing was broken or something happened with the tyre," he admitted. "It was close with Piastri on the last lap."

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