Sunday in Lusail begins in the worst possible way for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz Jr. will be forced not to take part in the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix due to a problem with the rear of his Ferrari.
On the SF-23, a fuel leak was noticed from the rear axle when there was just over an hour left before the start of the race. The Ferrari mechanics opened the car, even getting underneath it to locate the leak and try to remedy it in time to take part in the race.
Unfortunately for the Prancing Horse team, all the operations carried out were of no use to Sainz, who will not take part in the race and will be forced to follow it from the wall while his teammate will try to redeem himself after yesterday’s Sprint Race which ended outside the points for receiving a penalty.
“Due to a fuel system issue on his car, Carlos will not take part in the Qatar GP”, said the team less than an hour before departure.
Sainz should have started the grand prix from the 12th spot on the grid, i.e. from the sixth row which he should have shared with Yuki Tsunoda and his AlphaTauri AT04.
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, is interviewed in the media pen
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
The person who will benefit most from the KO of the Madrid native and Sergio Perez’s departure from the pit lane will be Alexander Albon. The Williams driver, 14th yesterday, will recover 2 positions immediately and will be able to try to undermine those in front of him to enter the points zone again today after the good seventh place obtained yesterday.
Ferrari, however, will be able to count only on Charles Leclerc. On Friday the Monegasque achieved the seventh fastest time, but thanks to the times taken away from the McLarens of Lando Norris first and Oscar Piastri then obtained in Q3 he rose to fifth place. In front of him, in addition to the usual Max Verstappen, the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will start, but also the Aston Martin AMR23 of Fernando Alonso.
This means that Leclerc will have to try to make a comeback to limit the damage in a weekend that is currently favorable to Mercedes. The Brackley team managed to pull ahead of Ferrari again in the Constructors’ World Championship thanks to the result of yesterday’s Sprint Race. Now there is a gap of 26 points between the two teams in favor of the one managed by Toto Wolff.
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