Charles Leclerc remains hopeful that he can produce "something special" this weekend despite being hampered by a 10-second grid penalty.
The Monegasque's best possible starting position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be 11th place, even if he sets the fastest time in qualifying. The punishment comes as a result of Ferrari fitting new Control Electronics to his car after the first two failed.
Only two are allowed per driver every season, meaning Leclerc has already gone over the annual allocation after just one race. The second, brand new unit failed during the Bahrain Grand Prix, forcing him to pull over at the side of the track and retire from the race.
"It’s the way it is. It's the beginning of the season," he simply told reporters. "Of course, it's not the ideal start that I wish I had at the beginning, starting in Bahrain, but what can I do about it? Now we need to focus on what is ahead, what we can do to be a better team, to do better.
"This weekend we are starting from the back foot, but our target is to try and do something special. I like this challenge of starting a little bit more on the back foot and trying to do something special and come back to the front as quickly as possible."
Unfortunately for the Ferrari star, it is very unlikely that this weekend will be the only one affected. As the two CE units used so far are believed to be beyond repair, Leclerc accepts that further penalties will lie in wait later in the season with this new third component unlikely to go the distance.
"We had two control unit problems in Bahrain, which means that we need to take a penalty," he said. "We understand these problems but as a result I obviously need to take a penalty because I don't think they are reusable. We don't have the confirmation yet, but I don't think so."
More positively, though, Leclerc believes the reliability issues suffered in Bahrain have been resolved. "The team has told me that they understood the issue," he added.
As for Ferrari's chances in Jeddah, he said: "I think it might fit our car a little bit better on paper, but we never know because Red Bull also have a very flexible car and they can change the car quite a lot from Bahrain to here and be extremely competitive here too.
"I've got a 10 grid places penalty, so it will be a bit more difficult for me. But I'll do absolutely everything to have a good start and hopefully come back at the front as quickly as possible."
