Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was yesterday hit with a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The sanction was meted out by Formula One’s rulers the FIA after Ferrari were forced to change the power unit twice in Leclerc’s car at the season-opening race in Bahrain.
Ferrari then moved to use a third power unit for the race in Saudi Arabia, breaking the rules that only permit two changes in an entire season.
Leclerc, who is already 25 points adrift of double world champion Max Verstappen’s Red Bull after he failed to finish in Bahrain, faces further penalties if more parts need to be changed on his car ahead of Sunday’s race in Jeddah.
Ferrari’s new team principal Fred Vasseur explained what had gone wrong for the scuderia in Bahrain. “On Sunday, we had two different issues,” he said. “The first one was on the Sunday morning, when we did the fire up, and the second one was in the race. Unfortunately, it was two times the control unit, the ECU. It’s something that we never experienced in the past. I hope now it’s under control, but we have a deep analysis on this.”
The former Alfa Romeo chief, who took over from Matteo Binotti after last year’s reliability-hit campaign, added: “Unfortunately, we’ll have to take the penalty in Jeddah, because we have only a pool of two control units for the season.”
In Bahrain, Leclerc was running a comfortable third when he experienced a loss of power on lap 47 and retired, Verstappen going on to win from Sergio Perez for a Red Bull 1-2.

Austria to stay on F1 calendar until 2027
Austria will continue to host Formula One until 2027 after signing a four-year contract extension, both sides said. The Austrian Grand Prix returned to Formula One in 2014 and the last race of the current agreement was set to be held on July 2.
“The Austrian Grand Prix brings together the perfect mix of a challenging track, high-speed racing, and a beautiful venue for our fans, so I am delighted that we will be coming back to the Red Bull Ring until at least 2027 under this new agreement,” Formula One President and CEO Stefano Domenicali said.
Since its return the Red Bull Ring has proved a popular fixture on the calendar with tens of thousands of Dutch Max Verstappen and Red Bull fans flocking to the Styrian venue. The venue reported it has received a total of 1.39mn fans since its comeback, hosting 11 races including two events behind closed doors to kick off a 2020 season derailed by the pandemic. Last year’s sold out edition welcomed 303,000 spectators.