Penalty hypothesis in Baku, Leclerc: “They are checking the engine, saving it would be fantastic”

Leclerc, how many troubles in Monza

In Monza Ferrari once again tested the validity of Murphy’s law: everything that could go wrong, in fact, went terribly wrong, especially for Charles Leclerc.

Beyond the zero and endless controversies, the Monza weekend could have a further and annoying aftermath for Ferrari and Leclerc, as the evolved power unit with ADUO-2 was damaged by the Alboreto impact, which occurred on the second lap of the GP. In Maranello, examinations on the engine continue, after the Monegasque ran with ADUO-1 as a precaution in Madrid. But, clearly, the second token on the engine will be needed in Baku, a track where top speed will matter more.

Leclerc’s words

Leclerc, in short, will race with ADUO-2. But will it be the Monza engine or will Ferrari have to introduce another evolved power unit thus incurring a penalty in Azerbaijan? Number 16 did not commit but, like Frederic Vasseur, admitted that the second hypothesis is realistic: “For now, as far as I know, they are still checking the engine, we will see. I don’t know yet, but if we manage to save it it would be fantastic. Otherwise, probably at some point we will face a penalty“.

Regardless of which power unit he will mount in Baku, Leclerc is well aware of Ferrari’s weak point: “The car is competitive in the race, we just have to try to understand how to unlock more performance in qualifying. In my opinion, performance management is even more difficult on Saturday than on Sunday, and for this we have no immediate solutions. But anything we can do to try to gain some performance on Saturday would be very useful for our race result“.

Having ADUO-2 in Baku would allow Ferrari to get closer to Mercedes’ performance. Even in Madrid, on a very twisty circuit, the better effectiveness in the delivery of the latest evolution was evident, with Hamilton gaining about two tenths over Leclerc.

Translated from