Ferrari is still trying to save the upgraded engine damaged during Charles Leclerc’s violent crash at Monza. A penalty remains possible.
The consequences of Charles Leclerc’s spectacular crash at the Italian Grand Prix might not be limited to his retirement. Nearly two weeks after the impact, Ferrari is still thoroughly inspecting the upgraded engine that equipped his car at Monza to determine if it can be used again this season.
The Monegasque had violently lost control of his Ferrari at the Parabolica on the second lap of the race. The impact had destroyed a large part of the car and caused a red flag. An additional problem: Leclerc was using for the first time the new evolution of the Ferrari engine, whose permanent loss could now cost him a grid penalty.
Ferrari is still trying to save the engine
After the crash, Ferrari repatriated the power unit to carry out a series of thorough checks. A week later in Madrid, it had not been reinstalled in Leclerc’s car, who therefore had to use an older specification.
The engineers continue their analyses to determine if some components were damaged by the violence of the impact. Leclerc is still waiting for a final verdict.
“For now, from what I know, they are still checking it. We will see.”
The Ferrari driver naturally hopes that the unit can be recovered and reintroduced into his rotation for the upcoming races.
“I don’t know yet. If we manage to save it, that will obviously be great news.”
A grid penalty remains possible
If not, Ferrari could be forced to introduce a new unit equipped with its evolution. Leclerc would then exceed his allowed quota of components for the season and would probably have to serve a grid penalty at a future Grand Prix.
A particularly frustrating consequence since the replacement would not be related to a reliability issue, but directly to the damage caused by his Monza crash.
“If we can’t recover it, that will probably mean a penalty at some point.”
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Ferrari had precisely introduced this evolution at home to improve the performance of its powertrain for the end of the season. Losing the unit after only a few kilometers of racing would therefore be a serious setback for Leclerc.
Leclerc identifies another weakness at Ferrari
Beyond the particular situation of his engine, Leclerc believes Ferrari still needs to improve in another essential area: qualifying. According to him, the car has an interesting level of performance over long stints, but the team does not always manage to exploit its maximum potential over a single lap.
This weakness can have significant consequences on Sunday, especially on circuits where overtaking is difficult. Madrid provided a good illustration since Leclerc had finished fifth in qualifying, only 195 thousandths off pole position.
“I clearly think our car is strong in races, but we need to try to understand how to unlock more performance in qualifying.”
Energy deployment penalizes Ferrari on Saturdays
Leclerc more precisely points to the management and deployment of electric energy. This feature of the new engine regulations constitutes, according to him, a bigger handicap during qualifying than during races.
Unfortunately, Ferrari does not have an immediate solution to eliminate this weakness.
“We know that energy deployment causes us more difficulties on Saturdays than on Sundays and, for that, we don’t have a quick solution.”
The Monegasque nevertheless believes that even the smallest progress made over a lap could have important repercussions on Ferrari’s race results.
“Anything we can do to gain a bit of performance on Saturday would be very useful to improve our result on Sunday.”
Ferrari therefore has two important matters to manage before the upcoming races: continue improving the performance of its car in qualifying and, above all, determine if the engine involved in Leclerc’s huge crash at Monza can still be saved. If not, the Monegasque already knows that a grid penalty could await him later in the season.
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