Charles Leclerc will start today’s race from 19th after taking multiple penalties for replacement power unit penalties, but believes fourth at the finish is possible.
However he admitted passing cars may prove slightly harder than he expected around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“I don’t know whether it will work out or not,” Leclerc said. “It was a bit more difficult to overtake than what I initially thought yesterday.
“But overall, I think we’ve got quite a good pace in the car. If we play it smart in the strategy, having some clean air, we can come back to P4 or something.
“So that is the goal and yeah, I’ll give it everything.”
Leclerc called his chances of a victory from the back view ‘optimistic,’ saying he was backing team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr to fight with Max Verstappen for the lead.
“Obviously if I’m not able to do that, then the second person I want to win is Carlos. That would be great for him,” said Leclerc. “I think he’s been competitive this weekend and it’s going to be very close with Max and hopefully with a late Safety Car and a little bit of luck, I can join the battle also.
“But obviously this is quite optimistic.”
Ferrari used the qualifying session to run Leclerc’s car after the new power unit installation and check everything was working. He did not participate in Q2.
Although disappointed at to not being able to qualify, Leclerc said he believed Ferrari had taken the right choice by opting to take all the grid penalties at once.
“I don’t know if there will be any more penalties other than that but I think it’s the best we could have done, although it is not a good situation to be in. But I guess we took the right decision to put it all on one race instead of having multiple race with then grid places.
“So we’ll try to make the most of it and hopefully we can have no reliability issues anymore and focus on ourselves and catch back up with the Red Bulls in the championship.”
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2022 Canadian Grand Prix
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