Ferrari faced disappointment as reliability issues plagued its cars once again in Baku as a hydraulic problem forced Carlos Sainz to retire in lap 9 and a power unit issue ended Charles Leclerc’s day.
In the aftermath of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, team principal Mattia Binotto said he didn’t have the answers to what happened. This marked Leclerc’s second engine failure in three races, which also cost him the win at the Spanish Grand Prix.
With only one week between Baku and Montreal, the Monegasque’s engine is due to arrive at the factory on Wednesday. Ferrari said the initial examination should be completed by tomorrow evening. As far as the Spaniard’s car, his hydraulics have been examined and a “short-term fix” will be used for the Canadian Grand Prix this Sunday “while work is on-going on mid/long-term solutions.”
The penalty situation for Leclerc is still unknown. F1 drivers are limited to just three engines in a season, and if they use more, they have to start further back on the grid in the next race. He had to switch to his second power unit of the season for the Miami Grand Prix in early May, per The Race.
The latest DNF dropped Leclerc to third in the driver standings. Max Verstappen leads with 150, Sergio Pérez sits second at 129 and Leclerc rounds out the group with 116. George Russell is closing the gap in fourth, just 17 points behind Leclerc.
Red Bull leads the constructor standings with 279 points to Ferrari’s 199. Mercedes, meanwhile, is closing the gap with 161 points in third.
“It’s a third disappointment in a row, and it’s not easy,” Leclerc said, per Motorsport.com on Sunday. “But yeah, overall, I’m confident that mentally I will be as strong as I was five races ago, when I was leading the championship, at the next race, and the motivation is still there.
“But we need to get on top of those things. And obviously, reliability is something that we need to look into after the last three races. As a team, we need to maybe do a step on that.”
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