Leclerc to start from pits as Ferrari fit “completely new back end”

Charles Leclerc will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane as Ferrari are making major changes to his car after he qualified 19th.

The team introduced a major update for its SF-23 this weekend and Leclerc professed himself happy with his car’s balance in final practice on Saturday morning. But he suffered an unexplained handling problem during Q1 which was not fixed by a change of tyres, and qualified only 19th.

Rather than start from the back row of the grid with an ill-handling car, Ferrari has decided to replace the gearbox and associated parts on Leclerc’s car.

“Obviously qualifying on the back row has given us the unfortunate opportunity to look at a lot of things and consider,” Leclerc’s performance engineer Jock Clear told media including RaceFans at the Circuit de Catalunya today.

“He was really uncomfortable with the car straight away in qualifying and had no confidence in the car. So we’ve taken the opportunity to change the gearbox. That’s effectively all the back end, really just to make sure there is nothing on there that is untoward.”

Leclerc said yesterday he will “be very, very surprised if we don’t find something on the car”. Ferrari hasn’t inspected it yet due to restrictions on working on F1 cars overnight after qualifying.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to look at it yet because time doesn’t allow you to do that with the parc ferme as it is,” said Clear. “In fact we haven’t even changed the gearbox yet, we’re in the process. But that will go back to the factory and we’ll check it.

“But the thing for him this afternoon is he’ll have a new back end on the car so that should give him confidence again that whatever might have been in there that wasn’t quite sorted is now sorted. Completely new back end and as such he will have to start from the pit lane but he can do that with some confidence and we can hopefully get him back in the points.”

The FIA confirmed Ferrari fitted new power unit parts to Leclerc’s car including his third energy store and fourth control electronics of the season. Both exceed the maximum number permitted during the season, but as he is starting from the pit lane it will not affect his qualifying position.

Logan Sargeant, the only driver who qualified behind Leclerc, will also start from the pit lane after Williams changed his suspension set-up and brake cooling.

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