F1 Canadian GP: Why Charles Leclerc is still confident he can beat Max Verstappen

Leclerc star🎶ted on the back row of the grid at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after taking on new engine co🏅mponents due to his Ferrari power unit failure in Baku.
Despite making significant progress through the field, Leclerc’s race was compromised when he got stuck behind Al🦹pine’s Esteban Ocon.
Leclerc managed to overtake both Alpines to come home in fifth after the Safety Car period, completing a sol꧑id recovery drive in Montreal.
- Verstappen beats Sainz to Canadian GP victory, Hamilton returns to the podiuౠm
- Red Bull ‘lo😼st communication’ with Verstappen’s F1 car in Canadian GP
- What𓄧 did Hamilton, Vers🐟tappen, Sainz say in the cooling room?
- DRIVER RATINGS: 10/10 for Verstappen and one other🅠 driver… but for who?
With Verstappen taking his sixth win🤪 of the season, Leclerc is now 49 points behind going into July’s British Grand Prix.
Even with the gap so large, Leclerc remains confident he can turn it ꦡaround.
“Yes, yes. I think reliability seems to be a concern for꧟ everyone this season,” Leclerc said when asked if he could catch Verstappen.
“If we fix our reliability the performance is there to come back so already from Silveꦉrstone we will try to get a few points back.”

Reflec🗹ting on the 70-lap Canadian GP, Leclerc admitted he had to be patient when fighting in the midfield.
“I think unfortunately with the pit stop it🌜 put us a bit in a bad situation as we cleared the DRS train then got another DRS train and it cost me a🌄 bit at the end,” Leclerc added.
“Overall it was a race I had to be patient, at the beginning I was stuck in a DRS train then ꧒I was stuck behind Esteban who had new tyres and was very good at Turn 10, whenever I had free air I thi♏nk pace was really good but it’s like this.”
Sainz’s best race of the year
On the other side o🌠f the Ferrari garage, Carlos Sainz enjoyed his best race of the year.
While he missed out yet again on his maiden F1 v💛ictory, he pushed Max Verstappen all the way.
On fresher hard tyres following the Safety Car, Sainz remained in DRS range of his former teammate, but co⭕uldn’t get through.

Sainz felt that he was the faste🌳st car on track - sꦗomething that hasn’t been the case at any point this season, indicating that he’s made great progress.
“As I said, ♓I left everything out there,” Sainz said. “But compared to a Red Bull today, we were quicker, I think the whole race. First time the season𓄧 that I think I can say that I was fastest man on track, which gives me some confidence and hope for the next races.
“But two or three-tenths is not enough 🍰to pass a Red Bull, you need more like five, six-tenths of pace delta if you really want to have any chance of pa🦋ssing Max.”

With a sharp eye for F1’꧋s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.