"We have some good surprises" - Charles Leclerc says Ferrari could have 'a very competitive car' for 2022 F1 Monaco GP

Charles Leclerc is expecting a strong Ferrari for the Monaco GP weekend. The Monegasque has scored 4 pole positions this season in 6 races as Ferrari has been the car to have in qualifying.

When questioned if he expected his team to retain a competitive edge in Monaco this weekend, Leclerc was confident of the Scuderia's prospects. Claiming that he was expecting good things from the car going into the weekend, he said:

“I think overall, whatever tracks we have been at this year, we’ve been competitive, so I think we have a very strong package overall. In the corners has been our strength against the Red Bull – but as we’ve seen last year, we didn’t have a very competitive car, but we arrived in Monaco and were super quick. So, it could be that we have some good surprises and maybe the other teams, that we don’t expect to be fighting for pole, are actually there at the top. So, I think it will be an exciting weekend and I hope that for ourselves, we will be strong.”

Charles Leclerc was cruising towards a win at the Spanish GP last week to further extend his championship lead over rival Max Verstappen. Fate struck a tough blow, however, as the Ferrari suffered a power unit failure and Leclerc had to crawl back to the pits and retire. Although the entire situation should have been painful for the Ferrari driver, he took it in his stride and kept his chin up in the aftermath.

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Charles Leclerc says Ferrari understands what went wrong in Barcelona

At the drivers' press conference on Friday, Charles Leclerc was asked whether Ferrari understood the issue with the car from the Spanish GP weekend and if it could happen again. Leclerc appeared confident in his reply as he claimed that the team had the opportunity to analyze what had gone wrong with the car and he didn't expect the team to encounter the same issue again.

He said:

“Well, they understood the issue, and that is the most important now: whenever you have a problem, you just need to analyse and understand what went wrong. We did understand what went wrong; we changed a few things and I’m confident that it won’t happen again.”

Leclerc has been off to a commanding start in the Monaco GP. He was the fastest driver in both FP1 and FP2, with his pace in FP2 being especially impressive compared to his peers.