Analysis: how did Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari engine get irreparably damaged?. How did Charles' engine get irreparably damaged?.

Adding insult to injury, this could be said about Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari SF21. Indeed, not only did he retire in a race that the Monegasque driver himself had characterized as “an important opportunity”, but, after having carried out extensive tests in Maranello last Monday, Ferrari announced that the second engine of the season is irreparably damaged.

From the press release: “After the checks carried out yesterday (Monday) in Maranello on the SF21 number 16, it emerged that the engine was irreparably damaged in the impact at the Hungaroring with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and can no longer be used”.

The third power unit of the three available will be mounted on the SF21 car of the Monegasque driver at Spa before incurring a penalty later in the season. Something already planned at this point of the season, given that Spa and Monza (this year we will run after Holland) are very demanding tracks on the power unit side. All this, however, having the PU 1 and 2 available for the classic rotations on Friday free practice, considering the two remaining weekends with the Sprint Race (Monza for sure, then Austin?) Where it will be impossible to carry them out.

However, having no longer the second engine available for these rotations, which had only covered just over 1500 km, and with a PU 1 over 4300 km, Charles Leclerc could have to take a penalty on the starting grid in the second part of the season, when he will install the fourth endothermic and, as often happens, the fourth turbocharger group and MGU-H.

But let’s understand how the endothermic unit installed on the SF21 of the Monegasque could have been irreparably damaged.

It was all the result of the strong impact between the left front tire of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and the right part of Charles Leclerc’s SF21 in turn 1 which caused the cooling system to break. This led to a major leakage of liquid, as can also be seen from the image above.

The Monegasque, unable to see this damage from the mirrors alone, tried to continue, until his SF21 spun and the engine fell silent at the entrance to turn 2. Having continued with the engine not cooled, even in the few hundreds of meters that divide the first two corners of the Hungaroring, has generated devastating consequences on the thermal unit.

Something similar also happened to Checo Perez, albeit in a more contained way (at least initially), so much so that the Mexican driver managed to get up to the straight between turns 11 and 12 where he had to give up, parking his “injured” RB16B after the order given via radio from the pits (they had noticed the important anomaly).

Valtteri Bottas’ serious error of judgment in braking in turn 1 had in fact caused him to break the “right” cooling system of the PU Honda, which could very easily have suffered the same damage as its Italian ‘sister’.

“He lost all the water immediately. We will have to investigate in more detail, but the first reports say that the engine will be difficult to use in the future.” – said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Charles Leclerc will therefore sooner or later have to serve a penalty of at least 10 positions on the grid, as compared to Lance Stroll who will be behind “only” 5 positions at Spa. Same situation also between Perez and Bottas. It is strange to write it, but the two innocent drivers will pay a higher price than those who awkwardly generated it. Then there is a question of money for the ‘repairs’ of the damage. These incidents obviously enter into the calculation of the millions of dollars (145 this year) available to the teams from the budget cap, thus going to ‘limit’ even those who suffer them without blame as in the case of the duo Red Bull and Charles Leclerc in Hungary.

We recall that Mercedes has chosen to skip a day of testing on Pirelli 2022 tyres to compensate for the extra cost caused by the accident between Bottas and Russell in Imola. The Milton Keynes and Maranello team would like F1 managers to discuss how to account for this accident damage.

“Accidents like the ones we have suffered in the last two GPs have not been foreseen and it is something that needs to be examined in more detail by the FIA,” said Cristian Horner, Team Principal of Red Bull. The British team would like these crash costs to be excluded from the 145 million cap budget.

Ferrari, on the other hand, is of the opinion that the teams of the drivers who caused the accident should pay the damages. Mercedes in Silverstone, Mercedes and Aston Martin in Hungary. This is also to make the drivers more responsible.

Both solutions are complicated to implement, the Ferrari one even more so. Who would determine what is the cost of repairing a particular damaged car? According to Red Bull, the Silverstone crash cost $ 1.8 million but it may not be the same for another team.

In addition to this, which components would be considered truly damaged and which not? And what about the engines? On the other hand, especially competing teams (Mercedes and Red Bull in this case) would do everything to raise the expense to be passed on to the other team, if the Ferrari solution would be used.

The inspection should then take place piece by piece, with the FIA ​​as supervisor. However, we have already seen how often the FIA does not have the ability to do its job correctly.

In conclusion, it is rather difficult to find a solution that does not leave room for too many interpretations, always deleterious in a very regulated system such as Formula 1 which, even more so with the budget cap, should grant more freedom.