Charles Leclerc faces further title blow with Saudi Arabian Grand Prix grid penalty

Leclerc was forced to retire from the season opener in Bahrain

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc faces a 10-place grid penalty ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

It comes after Leclerc was forced to retire from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix due to an engine issue, in what was an early blow to his hopes of challenging Max Verstappen for the F1 title.

Frederic Vasseur, the new Ferrari team principal, said following the race that he was surprised by the retirement but a further investigation has identified the problem.

Ferrari said they have been forced to fit another control electronics power unit on Leclerc’s car ahead of the second race of the season, having already replaced parts in Bahrain.

Teams are only allowed to use two control electronics components per season until a penalty is triggered, which has given Leclerc an uphill battle as he looks to cut Verstappen’s early lead in the standings.

“On Sunday, we had two different issues,” Vasseur said on Wednesday. “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. Unfortunately, we’ll have to take the penalty in Jeddah, because we have only a pool of two control units for the season.”

Leclerc may be forced to take a further grid drop if Ferrari have taken further replacement parts.