Charles Leclerc looks to the French GP with the eyes of someone who needs to recover points against the championship leader, Max Verstappen. The 38 points gap in the drivers’ standings is important, but the hope is to gnaw some length in the two appointments that remain before the well-deserved summer break.
The second round of a season begins at Paul Ricard with 22 GPs which promises to be very long and hard-fought, in which reliability will have an important, if not decisive, weight. If we have to keep to the brutality of the numbers in Maranello, there is very little to waste, because the Scuderia is the one that has covered the least kilometers in 11 races (5,280 km) followed by Alfa Romeo and Haas.
Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari F1-75 after the engine failure that caused his retirement
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
If the most reliable power unit is the Mercedes one, the most fragile is certainly the Ferrari one. The failure of Carlos Sainz’s 066/7 in Austria with the Spaniard’s F1-75 fire starting was the latest demonstration of a very powerful and high-performance engine, but also too weak to the stresses it is subjected to.
At the Red Bull Ring (as in Baku) the 6-cylinder crashed, making a “stew” of what was around: although it was the PU2 and not the engine 3, unmarked at Silverstone and which remains in the availability of the Iberian , a completely new power unit will be fitted to Carlos at the Castellet.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
The reason is simple: the internal combustion engine will carry some changes with respect to the previous version which are the result of the data that emerged from the withdrawal of Leclerc in Baku. The engineers directed by Enrico Gualtieri hope to extend the life of the engine 4 with a longer duration, but having to take penalties from the Paul Ricard, we might as well anticipate the debut of the new hybrid that should have entered the scene in Belgium or Monza.
This would be the solution that gave … wings to Mick Schumacher in Styria, although this circumstance was denied by Mattia Binotto. With the evolved ERS (the latest homologation is granted until the month of September) the 066/7 will also be able to count on a few more electric horses.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
If that were the case, Ferrari would go to France with the intention of aiming for a brace to try to make Leclerc’s points recovery more consistent on the Dutchman’s Red Bull. The Monegasque will be able to rely on two fresh homologated engines (the 4 and the 5, both unmarked in Canada), the Spaniard will have a unit that will have to prove to be just as competitive but decidedly less fragile.
This 066/7 from Madrid becomes strategic for Ferrari because it will serve to plan the second part of the season: with a more robust engine, the Scuderia will also be able to plan the next power unit replacement for Leclerc, perhaps without running into other failures.
And in the meantime, other functional changes to reliability could arrive that the Maranello technicians will be able to integrate into the engine. If this were the case, we would have an extraordinary test on the ability to react in the Sport Management, provided that the two current engines of Charles take a hit without surprises …
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