The alignment checks on Charles Leclerc’s SF-23 Evo did not reveal any anomalies: the mysterious problem that penalized the Monegasque Ferrari in Q1 has not been certified yet, but the investigation will resume this morning because the technicians at Maranello want to get to the bottom of what prevented the driver from achieving better than the nineteenth performance.
There is a suspicion that there may have been an issue with the delivery of electrical power in the hybrid system, and it is no coincidence that the engineers in Maranello are considering the precautionary replacement of the battery. The tire temperature during the preparation lap has nothing to do with it: from that perspective, the Ferrari driver had no issues, while there may have been a problem with a differential sensor, causing the torque to be distributed anomalously between the two wheels.
It is evident to everyone that something prevented Charles Leclerc from fighting for the front row, just as Carlos Sainz did, who put his red car in second place at the end of qualifying, behind the unmatchable Max Verstappen with Red Bull.
Furthermore, Charles Leclerc’s car has been selected for the “Show and tell,” which is the moment that the FIA reserves on Sunday morning for a few journalists to delve into technical issues with the engineers, having access to the garage where three different cars are made available to the media.
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In short, things are not going smoothly for Ferrari, so there are still no precise answers as to why Charles was affected by these problems yesterday. Evaluations are underway to decide whether to have Charles Leclerc start from the pit lane for the Spanish Grand Prix instead of the starting grid. This option is seriously considered to take advantage of the opportunity to use the third battery and the fourth control unit, stockpiling them with a penalty that wouldn’t cost much to Charles considering his already poor starting position. They will switch to the third gearbox of the season (in this case without a penalty), perhaps to dispel doubts about that strange feeling the driver had received from the clutch.
When the parc fermé is broken, it’s best to make the most of the allowed interventions. It is not excluded that the rear wing will also be slightly adjusted to facilitate overtaking from behind…
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