New Ferrari engine for Leclerc not quite reliable yet in Russia

Charles Leclerc has already been given a grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix due to putting a new engine in his car. The Ferrari driver will not have the full update at his disposal yet though, as the engine is not completely reliable.

Leclerc must wait

In Russia, Ferrari have chosen to give Leclerc a new engine. Just like Honda, Ferrari have some updates in reserve, which means they are still allowed to update parts of the engine. Leclerc will get those upgrades first, but will not be able to use them fully yet, according to the words of Mattia Binotto.

To Corriere.it, the team boss told us that there are problems with the new engine, and especially in combination with the only part that came out of Leclerc's crash in Hungary without damage. As a result, the plans have changed.

Ferrari engine scaled back

"The new hybrid part has not yet reached the level in terms of reliability on the test bench, despite the team working on it 24 hours a day. The fact that we have to take old parts into account has obviously not helped. Because of this we have decided that we have to be careful."

Leclerc will start the Russian Grand Prix from the back, but not with a fully-upgraded engine. The new upgrade now reportedly brings him 8bhp. This is half what the full update should bring. Ferrari hopes to push the engine to its maximum level during the season through various mappings, but for that the engine must first become reliable.