Charles Leclerc still not confident about Ferrari's race performance after positive signs in Canada

Charles Leclerc is still not confident about how Ferrari could fare in the race despite a strong showing from the team in Canada. The Italian team will have its driver starting the race on the front row after an impressive lap on Friday. Having said that, in what has been a pattern this season, the car tends to perform well over a lap but capitulates in the race.

While the team did buck this trend in Canada, where both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were the only drivers to make use of the one-stop strategy, the driver was still not too confident if the form would translate to the race in Austria. When questioned about his expectations from the race on Sunday during the post-quali press conference, Leclerc said:

"There's always something more. I think Turn 3 was not ideal. Turn 1 had quite a bit of snaps. We tried to add a bit more front wing for the last run in Q3 and it probably was a tiny bit too much. But at the end it’s part of the game. Very, very close to pole position, which is a good sign."

He added:

"But we all know that our weakness is the race. So we are waiting for the race to try and see if we confirm the positive signs that we've seen in Montréal. And as I said earlier, the team has done a great job by putting so much effort into bringing the upgrades earlier than what was planned. And that helped us to have a good feeling with the car today."

Efforts being made to make the race pace better: Charles Leclerc

When questioned about the effect of the upgrades brought to the cars in Austria, Charles Leclerc admitted that efforts were being made primarily to make the race pace better. He said:

"Again, all the effort is made to make our race pace better. So it is great to be on the front row. It is great to be close again to pole position, or at least to be fighting for it. But on the other hand, we still need to wait, because the points are scored on Sunday. And since the beginning of season that's where the struggles are for us."

While Canada might have given Charles Leclerc and Ferrari a reason to be optimistic, we have to wait and see if the team could pose a challenge to Red Bull in the race on Sunday.