The Monegasque driver suffered his second engine failure in three races on Sunday, after a fatal problem forced him to retire while leading the 2022 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
This new problem, which comes just two rounds after another power unit failure cost him victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, has left the door open for his rival for the title, Max Verstappen, to further extend his advantage at the top of the championship standings of up to 34 points over the Monegasque driver.
Leclerc explained that the pain of retirement was difficult to accept, as there was no logical explanation why Ferrari was now suffering so much with reliability after having won two of the first three races of the campaign with no apparent problem.
“We’ve been quick and we haven’t had any big problems in the first part of the season,” he told Sky Sports .
“Now, it seems that we have more [breakdowns] compared to the beginning of the season, when we haven’t changed anything. If anything, we have improved.
“So it’s hard to understand right now. But we’re going to have to take a deep look at it, obviously. I don’t have a complete idea of what happened today.”
Leclerc encouraged his Ferrari team to try to get to the bottom of exactly what has gone wrong in recent weeks, to make sure those problems don’t again leave them unrewarded with a car that is really fast.
“It hurts,” Leclerc said. “We have to look into it so it doesn’t happen again. I can’t find the right words to describe it, obviously. It’s very, very disappointing. We have to look into it.”
After Leclerc retired in Spain, Ferrari had to change several engine components and it is possible that this failure in Baku will force them to change some elements again that could take them one step closer to receiving a grid penalty.
“I don’t know. I don’t have any news,” he said of a possible penalty in future races. “Obviously I’m still disappointed. I came from the car straight here and I haven’t spoken to anyone in the team, so I don’t know what went wrong.”
Leclerc ‘s retirement capped a disappointing day for Ferrari , as his teammate Carlos Sainz also retired due to a hydraulic problem.
