F1 News: Ferrari's 2024 hopes in doubt after MAJOR 'problem'

Frédéric Vasseur, Bahrain GP, Ferrari, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Ferrari's 2024 hopes in doubt after MAJOR 'problem'

Jock Clear is worried that Ferrari may not have fully identified their brake issues

Shay Rogers

Monday 11 March 2024 13:57

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Ferrari engineer Jock Clear has stated that the team haven't fully got to the bottom of an issue that first surfaced at the Bahrain Grand Prix and hindered Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque driver was plagued by brake issues which were pulling his car to the left under braking and costing him pace throughout the first race of the season.

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He recovered despite suffering with lockups to secure a solid fourth-placed finish, but was once again a long way off the pace of the Red Bulls at the Saudi Arabian GP.

Leclerc has struggled in the latter end of 2023, and the beginning stages of 2024, to capitalise on strong qualifying performances, often finding himself falling down the order during races.

Jock Clear strolls through the F1 paddock

Charles Leclerc struggled at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Ferrari struggling to fix issue

Speaking to media about the brake issues, Clear remarked that while progress had been made, Ferrari could not entirely pinpoint the issue.

"We are investigating, obviously we've only had a week between [races] and not even a week, only a couple of days in reality, and the factory is a long way away," he said.

Charles Leclerc has had a solid start to 2024

"We're starting to do it, we've done as much of an investigation as we can - and we're pretty much on top of it, with the help of Brembo [braking systems manufacturer].

"We've come [to Saudi Arabia] and we don't have any particular issues here, so I think we put that to bed. But to be honest, we're not completely on top of the problem, we haven't completely identified the problem."

For now, at least, Ferrari look like the most likely outfit to disturb Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s current run of nine consecutive race victories.