Charles’ misfortune
“Why am I so unlucky?”he screamed desperately Charles Leclerc via radio at the time of retirement in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday, after a hydraulic problem sent his SF-23 into a spin on the reconnaissance tour. It’s difficult to blame the Monegasque, who in recent years has truly experienced an impressive sequence of technical failures and problems beyond his control, particularly in races in which he started from the front row, just as it was in Brazil. But if we look at some data, it is Ferrari, in general, that has experienced many negative episodes in terms of reliability in recent years.
In particular, the data of the collections arrived even before the traffic lights went out, which are archived under the acronym DNS and which in theory should represent an absolute rarity, especially in top-level motorsport such as F1. In reality, however, in a good way three occasions in the last three seasons Ferrari saw one of its cars not even take part in the race due to some kind of problem that occurred before the start of the GP.
Third ‘non-start’ in three years: Red Bull and Mercedes are at zero
This year, in fact, it had already happened a few weeks ago, with Carlos Sainz missing the start of the Qatar Grand Prix due to a fuel leak. In 2021, however, in Monaco, Leclerc was once again unable to take advantage of pole position in his home race due to a transmission problem, following the accident of the #16 at the end of qualifying. Only the AlphaTaurinot exactly a top team, he had one score similar in recent years.
The comparison with historically antagonistic teams of the red – Red Bull, Mercedes and now McLaren – he is merciless. The Brackley team has never experienced a DNS since its official return to F1 in 2010. Red Bull’s last one dates back to the 2016 Australian GP. And also McLaren, which only recently returned to fighting for podiums and victories, did not experience a missed start from the 2020 Belgian GP, when the early surrender fell to Carlos Sainz. Among other things, it should not be forgotten that in the two-year period 2016-2017 the Ferraris, at the time driven by Vettel and Raikkonen, lost two races due to problems before the start. A curse which unfortunately still haunts the Cavallino today.
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