Charles Leclerc engine reliability ‘unacceptable’

Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari will take away the positives from the Bahrain Grand Prix despite the young driver missing out on his first victory in Formula 1. The 21-year-old Monegasque driver proved why Ferrari recruited him by qualifying on pole position and then leading much of Sunday’s race at the Bahrain International Circuit.

However, his SF90 suffered with engine power issues ten laps from the end and this meant Charles Leclerc had to settle for a third-place finish behind Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Speaking after the race Charles Leclerc said: “It’s part of motorsport, we know that. Sometimes it’s not your day to win. The team is disappointed and I am disappointed but there are a lot of positives to take home from this weekend. They gave me an amazing car and that is very much to their credit. The car was very easy to drive and was very good. These things happen in motorsport: we took the best out of it anyway. It’s my first podium even if I’m not enjoying it as much as I wanted. It’s life, it happens, we’ll come back stronger.” – he explained.

‘Unacceptable from us’
While Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto agreed that there are positives to take away from Bahrain the Italian outfit will launch an investigation into why the power failed on Charles Leclerc’s car.

Mattia Binotto said: “It was a shame for Charles. He was in the lead for much of the race and showed that he was particularly comfortable here in Bahrain, also setting the race fastest lap. He deserved to win and it was only the reliability problem, which we must now investigate, which prevented him from doing so. That is something unacceptable from us and it shows how important it is to get every last detail right in order to win. We head home with many positives on which to build for the rest of the season, such as our performance level and the way the team reacted. Clearly there are still various things that we have to learn and we will continue to work on them.” – the Ferrari boss added.

When is the next Formula 1 GP?
The third race of the 2019 F1 season will be the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday 14 April at the Shanghai International Circuit. China marks a huge milestone for Formula 1 as it will be the sport’s 1,000th world championship race.