Ferrari: Charles Leclerc's Brazil engine saved, but problem remains top secret

Ferrari: Charles Leclerc’s Brazil engine saved, but problem remains top secret. Ferrari can save Charles Leclerc's Brazil power unit, but the issue remains a secret.

“I lost hydraulic power. Oh no, it’s back.” In Brazil, Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc saw his Grand Prix come to an end during the formation lap, a retirement reminiscent of the Maranello team’s engine failure with Michael Schumacher at the 1996 French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours. Back then, Michael Schumacher was even in pole position (and it was the second consecutive race with a problem encountered during the formation lap, as he had to start from the back of the grid in Canada due to a fuel pump issue).

For the Italian side, this marked the second successive issue that prevented an SF-23 car from starting the race, following Carlos Sainz’s retirement in Qatar due to a fuel system leak. In 2023, so far, the Scuderia from Maranello has been completing races without resorting to extra power units beyond the three allowed by the regulations. However, after the early-season troubles related to control units, reliability has once again become a cause for concern for the team led on the track by Frederic Vasseur.

“As for what caused Charles Leclerc’s crash even before the race began, Maranello tells the story but keeps the cause top secret,” reads today’s edition of the Italian newspaper Il Corriere dello Sport. “It only leaks that after five corners during the formation lap, the electronic self-protection system detected an entirely abnormal value and shut everything down. Charles Leclerc saw the Christmas tree lights up on his steering wheel, and if this hadn’t happened, if the engine hadn’t been immediately shut down by the system, it would have blown up just a few meters later.”

So, the good news is that Charles Leclerc’s engine is safe, and most likely, there won’t be a need for a new one in Las Vegas, a move that would result in a significant grid penalty. In addition to analyzing what happened on Charles Leclerc’s car, Ferrari also had issues with Carlos Sainz in Brazil, particularly with the clutch and the left steering paddle during downshifting. The sports newspaper based in Rome described the paddle as becoming “sticky.”