A sprint qualifying to forget for Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari at the 4.318-kilometre Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on Friday. The engine of his Ferrari SF-24 car shut off in the pit lane, costing the Monegasque driver the chance to complete a lap in SQ3.
Charles Leclerc immediately got on the radio with his engineer to understand what had happened. Bryan Bozzi explained that the anti-stall had activated, which then caused the power unit to shut off.
At the time, this explanation seemed strange. The anti-stall is supposed to prevent the engine from shutting off. However, as explained by motorsport.com, new details have emerged about what happened in the pit lane.
Charles Leclerc’s mistake
Behind the problem with the SF-24 single-seater was not a technical issue but simply a driver error. During the queue in the pit lane, the Monegasque released the clutch too quickly, which indeed caused the anti-stall to activate.
For safety reasons, the anti-stall remains active for only a few seconds. A warning appears on the steering wheel, and the driver must quickly engage the clutch to keep the engine from shutting off.
If this is not done within a few seconds, the engine shuts off. Charles Leclerc, probably distracted by the slow queue in front of him, did not see the warning and therefore did not re-engage the clutch as required by the anti-stall.
For this reason, the engine of his Ferrari shut off, and the Monegasque driver had to restart it manually. This prevented him from crossing the finish line in time to set a lap time. Thus, the Ferrari driver will be forced to start from tenth position in the Sprint Race today. We will see if the SF-24 has the pace to allow him to make a comeback.
Source: f1ingenerale
