F1 News
Leclerc's suspicions confirmed: "Chassis must be replaced before the race"
- GPblog.com
Ferrari will change Charles Leclerc's chassis after it suffered a crack during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. With that, the Monegasque can add another setback to the list after failing to progress to Q3.
The Ferrari driver endured an unusually poor qualifying session at the Losail International Circuit, in which he failed to finish above 13th place in Q2. Teammate Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, qualified seventh.
Leclerc could not explain disappointing qualification
Afterwards, Leclerc wasn't sure why he was struggling so much. He did see that it had to be something big, because he couldn't explain the big difference. His suspicions were confirmed when Ferrari checked his car and discovered a crack in the chassis of the SF21.
"When Leclerc's car was checked, a crack was found in the chassis," Ferrari said in a statement on the official website of the team.
"This is probably the result of driving over the kerbs during the first run in Q1. It will now have to be replaced."
Leclerc himself is certainly not giving up. "I think everything is possible. We have free choice of tyres, so hopefully we can take advantage of that," the Ferrari driver said.