“What the hell happened!” Charles Leclerc rants on team radio after his engine turned off during Austrian GP Sprint Qualifying

Charles Leclerc was unable to set a time in Sprint Qualifying as he faced reliability woes.

“What the hell happened!” Charles Leclerc rants on team radio after his engine turned off during Austrian GP Sprint Qualifying

Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)

As the F1 paddock rolled up to Austria, a huge title fight was brewing between Red Bull and Ferrari. On the other hand, after the Maranello-based team’s subpar results in the past few weekends, they hoped for a better start to the weekend in Austria. However, fate was not on their side as amidst a time scramble in SQ3, Charles Leclerc‘s engine turned off in the pitlane, ruling him out of contention.

Ferrari was poised for a solid sprint qualifying performance as the team looked well adapted to the circuit in FP1. The team was happily through into SQ3 and aimed to make a bid for the top three spots. However, to their dismay, an unanticipated obstacle came their way handicapping the team for the rest of the session.

YouTube video

As Charles Leclerc rolled out of his box, his engine shut off, which made the Monegasque lose crucial time.

FS Video
What the hell happened guys?
Charles Leclerc said over team radio

The 26-year-old questioned his engineer about the situation. The latter claimed the issue to have been just an anti-stall procedure, but this left Leclerc angry as his engine had turned off completely, which is uncommon during an anti-stall incident. Consequently, he was unable to make it to the line on time to start a lap, and he thus qualified 10th for the Sprint race tomorrow, with both the Alpine cars ahead of him.

Charles Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz shared similar woes

On one hand, Ferrari was left strangled with the problem of Leclerc’s car. However, the tough outing did not end there, as Carlos Sainz also had a difficult qualifying session and barely managed to keep the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton behind.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, Fred Vasseur and Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)
Carlos Sainz, Fred Vasseur and Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)

The departing Spaniard reckoned that the SF-24 was oversteery.

I felt like it was a good lap, but I don’t know what happened. In general, the car was quite pointy.
Carlos Sainz said over the radio

The 29-year-old had radioed in on his engineer regarding the lap and admitted the lap to be a tidy one. However, he was disappointed with a fifth-place finish and complained about the car having a strong front end in comparison to the rear.

After an underwhelming performance, Ferrari would be in damage limitation mode during the Sprint race. Thus, Leclerc might go on to concede points in the driver’s championship to his rivals as the Italian squad slumps down in performance.

In case you missed it: