Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc faces a 10-place grid penalty forward of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
It comes after Leclerc was compelled to retire from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix resulting from an engine subject, in what was an early blow to his hopes of difficult Max Verstappen for the F1 title.
Frederic Vasseur, the brand new Ferrari staff principal, stated following the race that he was shocked by the retirement however an additional investigation has recognized the issue.
Ferrari stated they’ve been compelled to suit one other management electronics energy unit on Leclerc’s automobile forward of the second race of the season, having already changed elements in Bahrain.
Teams are solely allowed to make use of two management electronics elements per season till a penalty is triggered, which has given Leclerc an uphill battle as he seems to be to chop Verstappen’s early lead within the standings.
“On Sunday, we had two different issues,” Vasseur stated on Wednesday. “The first one was on the Sunday morning, when we did the fire up, and the second one was in the race. Unfortunately, it was two times the control unit, the ECU.
“It’s something that we never experienced in the past. I hope now it’s under control, but we have a deep analysis on this. Unfortunately, we’ll have to take the penalty in Jeddah, because we have only a pool of two control units for the season.”
Leclerc could also be compelled to take an additional grid drop if Ferrari have taken additional substitute elements.
