Vettel, Leclerc boost as Ferrari bring new engine for Barcelona

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has revealed that the Scuderia have brought forward an engine upgrade to boost Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc at the Spanish Grand Prix. Ferrari need a big result in Barcelona, having seen Mercedes secure one-two finishes at all four races so far this year.

Ferrari left the Circuit de Catalunya after pre-season testing with expectations of domination in the early rounds, having shown express pace in testing.

However, that has mostly failed to materialise in the races, with Vettel a distant third to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in the past two races, while Leclerc took third in Bahrain after an engine failure took him out of a winning position.

With the Silver Arrows already 74 points ahead in the constructors' championship – having won the title by just 10 more last year – Ferrari have been stung into action.

Binotto said: "It's time for the Spanish GP, traditionally a race where most of the teams bring some updates, therefore we can expect to see a step up in performance from our competitors.

"We are currently behind in the championship and we have to catch up, which we know means that our development work will be the key to this season.

"Having brought a new aerodynamic package to Baku, we will also bring some developments in this area to Barcelona.

"On top of that, we will have a new power unit that we are introducing ahead of schedule, as the second specification was due to be brought to Canada.

"Shell, in close collaboration with our team, has developed a different formulation of race lubricant that will also be introduced with the new power unit, delivering increased performance.

"It's only down to a big team effort with everyone pushing hard to make up ground that we have been able to bring these developments forward."

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