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It wasn't the start either Charles Leclerc or Ferrari would have hoped for after the first race of the season in Bahrain on Sunday (March 5), as the Monegasque driver had to retire due to an engine problem.
The Italian team, though, were quietly optimistic heading into the race, and Leclerc made a quick start, jumping Sergio Perez at the start for P2. However, their worst fears came true when Leclerc pulled over during the middle part of the race after suffering a power unit issue.
That was disappointing for Ferrari, as before the start of the race, they had changed some power unit components in Leclerc's car. Speaking to RaceFans, Ferrari boss Frederic Vassuer said:
“Honestly we don’t know yet what’s happened exactly. There’s been an issue this morning; we changed the parts; we don’t know where it’s coming from, and we’ll have the investigation soon. But it’s too early a stage for me to give you a better answer.”
He continued:
“We never expected to have something like this because it’s the first time that we had it. We didn’t face the same issue at all during the six or seven thousand kilometers that we did with the engines last week with the three teams. And we never had the same issue on the dyno throughout the winter. But again, we need to do a full investigation before to be able to give you a proper answer.”
“We definitely had the car to fight for the podium"- Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc said before his retirement from the race that he had a right car for the podium. Speaking to F1.com, he said:
“We definitely had the car to fight for the podium. I mean, honestly, the podium was there. We had a good gap behind, but I was managing the pace, and everything felt good, so it is a shame. Now I just hope we can look into it, understand what went wrong and don’t have this problem anymore. I mean, the first stint, the choice that we have made was the right one in qualifying yesterday. Apart from that, not much."
It will be interesting to see if the team can fix the issue before the next race in Saudi Arabia and decrease their pace deficit to Red Bull as the eye the championship this season.
