The first free practice session in Imola ended with the best time for Charles Leclerc, with Ferrari presenting not only with a new aerodynamic package, but also with a new race engineer for the Monegasque.
The first sessions of the weekend are, therefore, extremely important to understand not only the behavior of the car, but also to find harmony via radio with the new engineer, who had in any case collaborated with the Monegasque over the years as a performance engineer.
However, Leclerc also started the weekend with a third “novelty”, namely the third Power Unit of this start to the season. The Monegasque had already mounted the second unit just two weeks ago in Miami, with the first Power Unit having already completed five GPs at that point: naturally, the first unit will continue to be used in the rest of the championship, especially in the free practice sessions, being alternated with the other engines.
However, two weeks after the last replacement, foreseen in the normal rotation program drawn up by Ferrari, the Cavallino team decided to change the Power Unit on the Monegasque’s car a third time, this time as a precaution. Specifically, on Leclerc’s single-seater the engine, the turbo, the MGU-H and the MGU-K have been replaced and it has reached the third unit with all these components out of the four allowed by the regulations. Additionally, the exhaust system was also replaced, the fourth in seven races out of the eight allowed over the course of a single season. All these substitutions fall within the maximum number allowed by the regulations, so the Ferrari driver will not suffer any penalties in Imola.
This does not mean that the second Power Unit has been lost because, after the necessary factory checks, it should be reused again during the rest of the season.
The Monegasque was not the only one to replace Power Unit, because the same components were also mounted on the two Haas and Logan Sargeant’s Williams: in their case, however, it was the second unit, given that the first concluded the “race” cycle to be used in the various free practice sessions. It should also be noted that the Honda-powered cars, namely the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, as well as the Racing Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, had their control units replaced, fitting the second one allowed by the regulations. Furthermore, the battery was also changed on the two single-seaters from Faenza.
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