Ferrari had arrived in Bahrain with the intent of getting answers from SF-23. She had arrived in Bahrain, with the desire to give her riders and fans something different, and which above all, would have done justice to the history and the name of the Prancing Horse. Ferrari started the season with their heads down, aware that they have to work to close a gap that Red Bull had already built up in 2022. Vasseur he repeated it often: “We won't make the same mistakes“. A promise, like the one that arrived already in the winter – from more or less reliable sources – on a more reliable Power Unit. Although Vasseur, at least in this first phase has kept his promise, as regards the choices strategic, and more transparent communication, the reliability promise vanished with about 17 laps to go in the Grand Prix with the retirement of Charles Leclerc.
A bitter pill to digest, and you know, the Monegasque doesn't have a poker face. When disappointment comes from him, you can immediately read it in his swollen eyes, in the raised eyebrows, in the pauses between one word and another and in his hands in his hair. Frustration. Anger. A problem that was not foreseen – also having changed control unit and battery before the Grand Prix – and that hit the SF-23, and Leclerc, just when they were most vulnerable. Intent on defending third place. Although the tire degradation affected the Reds, in particular the Sainz one, the chances of keeping the position for Charles were quite high.
Alarming hypotheses
The team immediately looked for answers, to understand the extent of the problem and if the Power Unit had been compromised. The first rumors they spoke of a problem with the new control unit, the one fitted before the GP and which would have gone haywire, muting the engine. A bad twist of fate, in short. But that would not have affected the Power Unit. Later there was talk of a problem in the wiring that would have sent the electronics into a tailspin. An effect caused by overheating, too many vibrations or, ultimately, by a human error in the assembly of the car. The team therefore began a full autopsy of SF-23, to find the origin of the black-out and check the status of the two control units, for understand if the Monegasque risks a penalty already in the next Grand Prix of the season, in Jeddah.
At the moment, as Motorsport.com reports, the hypothesis of the wiring, gone into crisis due to an inadequate fixing in the packaging between the engine and the frame, which would have yielded for too many "bumps" e not for a human error in the assembly. The team would also have checked the status of the control units and hope, the only one, would reside right in the first unit, the one replaced as a precaution and which will now have to meet the appropriate parameters to be reassembled on Leclerc's Ferrari SF-23.
Source: Motorsport.com Italy
