Ferrari test driver reveals likely cause of Charles Leclerc’s Bahrain GP retirement

Charles Leclerc’s Bahrain Grand Prix was going reasonably well until lap 41. After starting on fresh soft tires, he jumped Sergio Perez at the start. In that stint, he was able to hold the Mexican driver off. But after the first round of pit stops, with him changing to a hard tire, he was overtaken by Perez, who was on softs, on lap 26. 15 laps later, Leclerc’s race was over, as he pulled to the side of the track, saying over the radio that he had ‘no power’.

The issue itself was completely unexpected, and apparently not related to the reliability issues Ferrari suffered last season. There has been a lot of reports regarding the cause. It said that it was related to the recently-replaced engine components – the control electronics and the energy stores. A ‘human error’ in the assembly of the car was also blamed. But from an actual Ferrari source – the team are quite sure the ‘replaced parts’ had nothing to do with the DNF.

As revealed in the F1 Nation Podcast, when put to him that ‘what a difference a year makes’ in the mood of the Ferrari garage, their test driver, Marc Gene, said: “Yes, yes, but you know, last year we started very well and we didn’t finish very well. So I hope this trend that the winner of the [first] Grand Prix has never won the championship [since 2017] is the case, though it’s going to be difficult.”

“We’ve improved in some areas: I think the he car was fast, we could’ve had pole position really in Bahrain but yeah, reliability, which was something completely unexpected, really, we were not expecting that, and of course the tire management, which was something we knew was going to be a hard point for us.” When asked if there was ‘a bit of concern’ going into the race as parts were changed on Leclerc’s car, Gene said: “We think not. It was the batteries we changed and it looks like the failure comes from the combustion engine.”

Read More: Charles Leclerc’s retirement from the Bahrain GP was caused due to an alleged ‘human error’ by Ferrari

Ferrari “quite sure” Charles Leclerc’s DNF had nothing to do with replaced parts

Ferrari suffered reliability issues galore last season: Half their total of retirements were due to mechanical failures. They had to turn their engine down in the latter stages of the season, as there were fears that the engine may fail again. This, and the tire degradation issues they suffered last season, were their ‘Achilles heel(s)’. If the first race is anything to go by, it seems that their problems haven’t been fixed.

But apparently, the problems aren’t related, and it never showed up in the dyno or during all of the pre-season testing. So when asked why they changed the parts on Charles Leclerc’s car, Marc Gene said: “We saw something…some numbers, let’s say, but it’s like, battery? No, we are quite sure it has nothing to do with what we changed. It was more like a precaution thing that we changed, and we are quite sure it has nothing to do with what happened with Charles.”

Whatever the cause: Ferrari must figure it out soon and fix it, in order to avoid such a disaster again. They hope to compete for the world title in 2023, but if their race pace doesn’t improve, and the reliability remains a problem, then it’s hard to see them matching Red Bull.

In case you missed it:

• Charles Leclerc gives a damning verdict on Ferrari’s race pace
• Fred Vasseur is adamant that the car concept is not to blame for Ferrari’s deficit to Red Bull

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