Charles Leclerc admits he would be happy to sacrifice the remainder of the 2021 F1 season if it meant that Ferrari could be more competitive in 2022. The team have progressed this year following their struggles in 2020, and are currently battling with McLaren for third place in the Constructors' Championship. However, with new regulations being introduced into the sport for the 2022 season, Leclerc is pushing the Scuderia to focus more on preparing for this. "If you had a contract in front of me telling me that if we sacrifice 2021 for a competitive 2022, I would be happy to take it," Leclerc told the Beyond The Grid podcast. "But nobody has this guarantee, unfortunately. "[I am pushing the team] more to focus on 2022, and I think this is clear for everyone. 2022 will be a huge opportunity for everyone. These new cars are going to stay for many years after that. "This year, okay, we are still fighting with McLaren for the third place in the Constructors', but at the end we know that our goal is to fight for the first position very, very soon, and this will be from 2022 onwards and not this year. "So I would be happy to give up about the third place in the Constructors' in 2021, to be fighting for the first place in 2022." In the meantime, Ferrari might have made a step forward with their car in 2021 compared to the previous year but Leclerc admits there are some frustrations over their struggles to get the whole balance of the performance right. "In general, I think we are doing a very good job by setting up the car in the right way to just have a good balance, and this helps us in many occasions," the Monegasque said. "I think that's also one of the reasons why we are so quick in qualifying. "But on the other hand, we are struggling for now to get on top of where the car needs to be exactly to be performing at its best at the race. We've seen that in Paul Ricard, where it has been a big disappointment, a big surprise obviously, to be struggling so much in the race. "But also we've shown that we can turn things around. In Austria, we had a very good race pace but a bit less in qualifying, so it's a fine line that we need to balance out. "We haven't found the right balance yet, but we are working on it and we are working well, so I hope that we can find the right balance. "It is frustrating because one race it's one way, the other race it's the other way. You never get the best out of both worlds, but it's part of life I guess and we'll try to find the right balance."
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