A bitter, very bitter start for Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari in the Bahrain Grand Prix, which proved to be marked not only by a very poor race pace, especially against Red Bull, but also by a sudden breakdown that forced the number 16 to end his race prematurely. Red Bull showed overwhelming supremacy over the two SF-23 cars, while Carlos Sainz was overtaken by Fernando Alonso in the final stages of the race. According to the very first rumors, the cause of Charles Leclerc’s retirement in the Bahrain GP has been identified as a failure of the internal combustion unit, which led to a very disappointing outcome in Sakhir.
Power unit in smoke for Charles Leclerc in the Bahrain GP
Despite the many rumors in the winter break that reliability would no longer be an issue in 2023, Charles Leclerc’s first race turned into a nightmare. A nightmare already seen too many times in 2022 due to poor reliability. The Monegasque was let down once again by the Ferrari power unit, stopping on lap 41. As reported by Sky with the evaluations still in progress, the internal combustion unit would have the main reason for the DNF.
A very dark day for the team from Maranello, which had to deal not only with problems with the power unit, but also with tire degradation that did not allow the two drivers to fight for important positions. At the time of retirement, Charles Leclerc was in third position, while Carlos Sainz was closely followed by Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin driver then managed to overtake the SF-23 of Carlos with some ease, taking his first podium of the season.
Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, despite a hard tyre, which on paper should have had less degradation than the softs mounted on the two Red Bull cars, suffered a lot, especially in the final stints. The SF23 had suffered in the tests with the soft tyres, but with the hards it had actually shown that it had good pace. None of that happened in today’s race, with a car literally at the mercy of degradation whatever the compound.
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Before the race, Charles Leclerc had replaced both the batteries and the ECU. According to the regulation, these components can only be replaced twice during the season. With the presumed issue of the internal combustion unit, Ferrari now has to understand if it can manage the rotations for the rest of the season. What is certain is that reliability is still an important issue and needs to be resolved as soon as possible.
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