Charles Leclerc says he “believes in miracles” and is motivated to “do something very special” after a disastrous qualifying session in Abu Dhabi.
Leclerc had a 10-place penalty for taking a new battery and then lost his best lap to a track limits offence in Q2, leaving him 14th.
He starts 19th as Franco Colapinto was 19th and had a five-place penalty, and thus lines up behind the Ferrari.
With the McLarens on the front of the grid Ferrari’s chances of winning the constructors’ championship have faded, but Leclerc hasn’t given up.
“Obviously I don’t feel good after a qualifying like that,” he said. “I don’t think I would have managed to beat the McLarens, they were too strong, but we could have been fourth.
“Obviously I got my lap time deleted. We are not making our life any easier. However, it motivates me to do something very special tomorrow, and my goal remains the same, it’s to win the constructors’ championship, and I still believe in it as much as I did yesterday, even though on paper obviously is going to be hard.”
He added: “I believe in miracles. Again it makes our life very difficult, that’s for sure. But with the 10 grid places penalty, it was always going to be difficult.
“But I see an opportunity to do something very special, and I’ll do my best to do it. And I think, yeah, I’ll believe in it until the very last lap. Anything can happen.”
Leclerc is confident that Ferrari has a good car for the race.
“The race pace was okay, but McLaren seemed to be a lot stronger,” he said. “But again, we’ve changed quite a bit the car since FP3, so I think we went in the right direction.
“And if anything, our tyre degradation is better than others, so I would expect to be in a good position.”
