Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was forced to retire due to an engine failure, while his teammate Carlos Sainz also did not finish after a hydraulic failure.
Charles Leclerc’s championship challenge with Ferrari this year seems more and more exciting.
His withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix leadership in a cloud of engine smoke was not the only time in three races that the same thing has happened. He was also the last in a series of disappointments to have seen an 80-point swing against him in just five runs.
“It feels bad, it hurts,” Leclerc said, adding, “It’s more than significant. I really don’t have the words. It’s just a big disappointment and I hope we can get out of that and be in the lead. Those things. “
Three races this season, Leclerc had two wins and a second-place finish, leading title rival Max Verstappen by 46 points.
Five races later, Leclerc chased the Red Bull driver by 34 points – a remarkable 80-point turn, averaging 16 points lost on average per race – despite being in pole position for the last four consecutive grand prix.
In this time, in addition to the two engine failures, Leclerc has seen his team throw the victory at home in Monaco with a failed strategy, while his own turn in the final stages of the Grand Prix of Emilia -Romania finished third in sixth. .
Did Leclerc lose another victory in Baku?
Two races ago in Spain, Leclerc seemed on the way to a certain victory. Monaco was another victory that escaped. Was it the same Sunday in Baku? That was less clear.
Ferrari’s decision to stop Leclerc for new tires under a first virtual safety car put him in a compensation strategy against the Red Bulls.
When Verstappen came out of his stop nine laps later, he was just under 13 seconds away and had 32 laps to go. Could Leclerc have gone fast enough long enough to keep Verstappen in check, or was Red Bull ready to catch him and pass him?
A second virtual security car, caused by another Ferrari engine failure, this time in the back of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, made it even harder to train. How this would have affected the race, if Leclerc had still been there, is impossible to know.
Verstappen said: “It would have been a very interesting fight until the end with Charles to see how far we would have taken him, because I think we had a bit of a rhythm advantage.”
Red Bull team manager Christian Horner said he believed Verstappen would have been able to catch up and move on to Leclerc, and other teams’ strategic simulations matched, suggesting he would have been close, but Verstappen would have won.
Leclerc wasn’t so sure. “We were leading and managing the tires well,” he said. “We just had to manage the tires to the end and we were in the best position to do it.”
The heat was on as cars and drivers lined up on the Baku grill
Ferrari’s “concern” goes beyond a losing victory
In the end, it was all academic. And ultimately, while another withdrawal was a major blow to Leclerc’s hopes for the title, an even bigger concern for Ferrari and Leclerc is the problematic situation it creates to move forward.
Now Leclerc is sure to be hit by grid sanctions for using too many engine parts this season, and the first may be in Canada next weekend.
Leclerc has already reached its maximum allocation of three turbochargers this year.
A completely new power unit, the second of the year, was installed in his car in Miami for the fifth race of the season.
And after its withdrawal in Spain, caused by a failure of the turbocharger and its related hybrid system component, the MGU-H, Ferrari gave it its third turbo at the start of the Baku weekend. When Ferrari uses a fourth turbo in its car, it will mean an automatic 10-seat grid penalty.
Of the other components that make up a power unit, Leclerc still has room for maneuver before a penalty comes in, this time five places. Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto admitted on Sunday that Leclerc would need a new engine for Montreal, although he stopped before confirming that this would be a penalty on the grid there.
Whatever happens in Canada, that means Leclerc will inevitably be hit with at least one engine-related grid penalty below, as there are still two-thirds of the season left to finish.
Binotto said: “It’s a concern, and even more so because I don’t have the answer I’d like right now about what the problem was.
“We’re going to have to build another new engine, that’s a fact. It’s very early in the season. Sometimes the problems you may have are not short-lived solutions, so I don’t know what strategy we’re going to have to take. One more mileage short or a different type of use, or a short solution because what happened is a short solution?
“It’s something we’ll understand in the next few days and hopefully we’ll have a clearer answer when we’re in Canada.”
The significance of these observations is clear. Binotto says that while Ferrari has a concern about reliability, at the moment they don’t know what its cause is.
Not only that, but if there is no short-term solution, they will need to change the way they use their engines. This would be either running less mileage, that is, using more engines, which would mean more penalties, or running them with lower performance, which would mean reducing their competitiveness.
Teams are allowed to make changes to their engines for reliability reasons, and the FIA has approved a number of these Ferrari applications, experts say. But engine changes are long-term and it is unclear when they will be ready.
What does Verstappen think of all this?
Unsurprisingly, Verstappen’s sympathy for his rival was lacking.
“This is a race,” he said. “It happened to me. It happened to a lot of people in the past. Unfortunately, it’s happening to Charles.
“It’s about how you get out of it. You look at how things get better. You learn. You don’t like it. You’re angry, but we turn it around and you always have to keep going because you never know what else might happen.”
Verstappen has had its own reliability issues this year, as he noted after the race. Leclerc’s huge advantage after his last victory in Australia in early April was created by the fact that Verstappen had retired from two of the first three races of the season.
“We had our misfortune earlier this year,” Verstappen said. “So we knew we had to catch up a bit, but then it looks like it’s more or less matched with bad luck now and you have to score points every weekend if you really want to fight for the championship.
“Everyone knows it. Everyone, of course, tries. But it’s not always that easy.”
Luck has not been completely matched in terms of reliability. Both have had two retirements, yes. But Verstappen’s two arrived when he was second behind Leclerc and his chances of victory were gone; one from Leclerc cost a certain victory; the other one possible.
Leclerc, perhaps reflecting on the two big changes he has already seen this season, remains optimistic – at least in public – that he can recover.
“I’m more than frustrated,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then.
“It’s not easy, but I’ve been through some difficult times in my career. Mentally, I’ll be there. I’m still as motivated as I was five races ago when I led by a pretty big margin. The championship is long and I still believe in how far I’ve gone. to do in the last few races, but we have to be at the forefront of these things. “
As for Ferrari’s title hopes, Binotto said: “It’s not something we’re looking at. We’re focused on ourselves and trying to get the most out of race weekends.
“We know we’re getting to the top, there’s still a gap. We’ve had some issues in recent events and we’re just focusing on trying to get better.
“We need another step right now. I’d rather have a good performance and try to fix the reliability than the other way around.”
And, perhaps thinking of this new engine, he rejected a suggestion that Leclerc needed to beat Canada to regain his title challenge.
“I don’t think it’s a forced victory at all,” Binotto said. “We will focus on running to optimize our potential. Something went wrong today. Lesson learned, try to understand, move forward and try to do it as soon as possible.
“Reliability is a key element of overall performance. To finish first, you have to finish first and we’re not there yet.”