Follow usCharles Leclerc will serve a grid penalty for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend after his team Ferrari were forced to fit another controls electronics power unit component.
The team replaced the Energy Store and Control Electronics on Leclerc’s engine right before the opening race in Bahrain, when the 25-year old retired on lap 41.
Teams are allowed to use only two electronics components throughout the season and with that being the third, Leclerc is facing a 10-place grid drop, which may increase if the Italian team decides to change any other components in his car for Sunday.
“On Sunday, we had two different issues,” said Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur 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.”
Vasseur shrugged off suggestions Ferrari were running on lower power, like they did last year after Baku, to reduce the possibility of failure. The team boss was adamant that despite the issues in Bahrain, the Tifosi team has worked on his durability and will not reduce power as a precaution.
Leclerc heads into the second race of the season 25 points of the double world champion Max Verstappen.
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