Ferrari has taken what it says is a precautionary step of changing the power unit in both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz‘s cars for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Leclerc already has a 10-place grid penalty this weekend as Ferrari has moved on to his third control electronics unit, one more than F1’s rules allow, after encountering two different failures in Bahrain.
On Friday, the team confirmed it had swapped in new power units in both cars as a precaution following on from Leclerc’s retirement from the opening race.
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New Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has said fixing the team’s spotty reliability record is a priority for the team in 2023.
The additional power unit changes will not incur further penalties as they are within Ferrari’s allowance for the year, but they are another example of the team moving through components which are supposed to last for significant chunks of the season.
It raises the likelihood of Leclerc and Sainz serving a grid penalty later in the year for moving beyond its allocated number of power units.
Source: www.espn.com