Ferrari’s golden Boy from Monaco, Charles Leclerc had a tough night at Sakhir at the Bahrain GP. He retired from the race on the 41st lap due to an engine failure. It was a major setback for Ferrari as he was on the way to grabbing the 3rd spot on the podium and also had a chance to get to 2nd place. Being the only powertrain that is competitive enough to challenge World Champions Red Bull Racing.
He started the Bahrain GP in 3rd place, quickly taking 2nd place over Red Bull’s Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez partly owing to Perez having a slow start and partly owing to him starting with soft slicks. He fell to 3rd place after the second round of pitting. He bellowed on the radio “No, no, no! No power!” as the hearts of the Tifosi sank.
Ferrari fans seeing Leclerc take a 10-place grid penalty in just the second race of the season 😭 pic.twitter.com/WOmvBTcdJ9
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) March 15, 2023
In the post-race interview, Leclerc revealed “We definitely had the car to fight for the podium. I mean, honestly, the podium was there.” The race ended pretty mundanely for the constructor as Carlos Sainz finished in 4th place behind 2X WDC champion Fernando Alonso, who in turn was trailing the boys at Red Bull.
Penalties for Charles Leclerc?
The electronics failure implies that Ferrari will have to drop Charles Leclerc at least 10 spots down the grid. This is mainly because Constructors are permitted to use only two electronic components in a season. This penalty can also add up if team principal, Fred Vasseur decides to replace any other parts of the car.
He commented, “Unfortunately, we’ll have to take the penalty in Jeddah because we have only a pool of two control units for the season.”
Continuing along the same lines, he said “Let’s see what happens in Jeddah, and what could be the outcome, even with the penalty, but don’t imagine for half a second he could be demotivated.”
Ferrari have ordered an investigation into Charles Leclerc’s race retirement in Bahrain 🔍#BahrainGP #F1 https://t.co/EXtx6SPSTR
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 8, 2023
Fred Vasseur seems like he has full confidence that the Ferrari team can compete with Red Bull at the top.
He pointed out to F1 that the 2023 season is especially long with 22 races to go and that there is both time and room for improvement.
Paired with the absence of Mercedes at the top, his rationale seems pretty strong if they do not drift apart from Red Bull with a huge points gap as they did in the 2022 season. Ferrari is now in the 4th spot behind Red Bull, Aston Martin, and Mercedes.
Discussion about this post