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Starting on the front row for the Brazilian GP, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was denied yet another solid result this season as he spun out on the formation lap due to a mechanical issue.
Positioned in P2 behind Max Verstappen, Leclerc's efforts in qualifying were undone before the race began on Sunday as his SF-23 suffered from a power unit and hydraulic failure which sent him spinning into the barriers and out of the race.
Charles Leclerc was left cursing his luck, while Ferrari team boss Frédéric Vasseur rued the missed opportunity for the Monegasque to take home a podium finish. Vasseur was confident that Leclerc could have finished on the podium but wasn't interested in talking about imaginary scenarios. Vasseur was quoted as saying by Formu1a.uno:
“I don’t have a glass half-full, but the podium for Charles was possible, yes. He started from the front row. With a new set of Softs, he could stay in clean air… But talking about ifs and buts is b***t, and we can’t do anything about it now,”
Charles Leclerc finished sixth in the sprint race on Saturday, almost 30 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen. With Verstappen and Lando Norris a class ahead of the field, Leclerc would have been pitted against Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez for the final podium spot if he had started the Brazilian GP.
It was a weekend filled with missed opportunities for Ferrari as Mercedes also had a disastrous outing with George Russell retiring and Lewis Hamilton bringing home an eighth-place finish on race day.
If Leclerc had finished the race, Scuderia could have made huge gains on the Silver Arrows in the Constructors Standings. Carlos Sainz's sixth-place finish at Sao Paulo has put Ferrari just 20 points adrift of second in the standings.
Ferrari boss explains Charles Leclerc's DNS
Frédéric Vasseur explained that Charles Leclerc couldn't have done anything with the failure of the control system which shut down the hydraulics and the engine. It resulted in the loss of power steering which sent the SF-23 into the barriers.
“The problem involves a control system that shuts down the hydraulics and engine. We don’t know the origin, but it is something linked more to the car’s electronic systems.” the team principal explained.
“Charles tried turning the engine off and on again, but there wasn’t much he could do. After leaving [the barriers], we told him it was better to stop.”
The team principal added that the engineers back at Maranello will diagnose the issue.
