Ferrari offer yet another explanation for Chalres Leclerc Bahrain failure

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari offer yet another explanation for Leclerc Bahrain failure

More tests have thrown up another reason.

Matthew Scott

Saturday 6 April 2019 11:13

Ferrari say an issue never before encountered by their mechanics was the cause of Charles Leclerc's loss of power at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which robbed him of a richly deserved victory. The cause of the issue has been much speculated on, but the team say it was down to a short circuit within an injection system control unit.

Leclerc was the star performer across the weekend in Sakhir, taking pole position on Saturday to become the second youngest pole-sitter in Formula 1 history – and Ferrari's youngest ever.

Having overcome a poor launch to regain first position at the expense of team-mate Sebastian Vettel – ignoring team orders to hold position in the process – Leclerc was cruising to his maiden race win in F1, until disaster struck.

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Lacking top-line speed, Leclerc was powerless to see the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas cruise past him, and only a safety-car finish prevented Max Verstappen from taking the final podium spot away from the 21-year-old.

It was thought at the time of the incident that an MGU-H failure was behind Leclerc's slow finish, raising fears of engine penalties further down the line this year.

However, team principal Mattia Binotto refuted those claims and suggested a cylinder failure was at fault – a suggestion refuted in some sections of Italian media.

But a team statement, understandably, backs up the boss' claim, while confirming that Leclerc will be able to use the same power unit in next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

The statement read: "Following the race, the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow technicians and engineers traced the fault on the car to a short circuit within an injection system control unit.

"This type of problem had never been seen before on the component in question."