Leclerc, there is the possibility of an engine penalty for Baku

A costly incident

In Monza, Ferrari had brought a power unit with the extra vitamins granted by the second seasonal allocation of the ADUO. However, things did not go as hoped in the home race, especially for Charles Leclerc, who ended the Brianza weekend with a bad crash at the Parabolica in the early stages of the race.

Besides the physical and morale hit, Leclerc found himself in Madrid having to serve a strategic penalty for the off-track excursion a few days earlier. Ferrari in fact preferred not to remount the ADUO2 engine on his SF-26, pending thorough checks after an initial factory inspection, choosing the ADUO1 power unit for the Monegasque.
This caused a power deficit compared to the engine fitted to Hamilton of about a couple of tenths, which cost Leclerc dearly in qualifying.

Leclerc penalized in Baku?

To have a second ADUO2 engine among those available to Leclerc, Ferrari did not hide that it was considering the possibility of having their driver take the penalty in Baku.
The Azerbaijani track, due to its layout, seems to be less penalizing than others in case of a start from the back of the grid.

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This was confirmed by Ferrari team principal, Frederic Vasseur, to the microphones of Canal +: “We will see when we have to take an engine penalty with Charles, but I think Baku should be quite good“, then remaining vague when asked for further clarification by the journalist: “I just said that we will have to take a penalty at some point…”.

Translated from