Ferrari has already eaten the first bonus, even before the season debut race has started. The battery was replaced on Charles Leclerc’s SF-23 before the redhead lines up for the Bahrain GP.
The news in itself has little value, since the first substitution does not cost any penalty on the grid: the Monegasque will be regularly in his place on the grid, but the Doc. 32 issued by the FIA and signed by the technical delegate Jo Bauer is worrying for the reliability of the redhead.
Each car can only have two batteries of the hybrid system for the whole season and the Scuderia has not yet started the 2023 championship and is already in the delicate situation of no longer having a spare without paying a penalty.
Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari, looking worried
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
In reality, Ferrari has announced that the replacement was decided because an anomalous parameter emerged during the morning start-up which advised the Prancing Horse electronics to replace the battery as a precaution.
This means that the original battery may not already be knocked out: an inspection will be carried out in Maranello and only afterwards will it be understood whether there is still a spare to be reused without falling into the first penalty of the season.
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