There was a lot of uncertainty about the situation of Charles Leclerc around the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Spain. The Monegask had, after a dramatic qualifying, changed many parts after parc ferme. Many fans thought that Leclerc would move 15 places back in Canada because he would already start from the back in Spain and so the penalty could not be carried out in Barcelona. However, this is not the case. The confusion arose due to the wording of the FIA.
Leclerc’s season has been anything but flawless so far. At the beginning of last year he seemed to have a chance at the title. However, during the season he slipped, both the Monegask and Ferrari started to make mistakes and there were also strategic blunders and reliability problems that cost a lot of points. This trend will continue in 2023. So far, Leclerc has collected 42 points by taking P7, P3, P7 and P6. In Bahrain and Australia he dropped out, while Leclerc did not get further than P11 last weekend.
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Leclerc and Sleep
In Spain, things already went wrong for Leclerc during qualifying. The driver did not get further than P19, which meant that he would start at the back of the race. Subsequently, many parts of the car were exchanged after parc ferme. For example, Ferrari would work on the suspension of the car, so that Leclerc had to start from the pit lane. However, the ambiguity then started when it became known that the energy store and control electronics had also been replaced at Leclerc. Since this happened during parc fermé and Leclerc is already over the limit in both parts, this resulted in a grid penalty of 15 places. The FIA’s description stated ‘dropping back 15 places for the next race in which the driver participates’. The last part of the sentence caused confusion, as it was never described in this way by the motorsport body in previous weekends.
No grid penalty Canada
Many people on the internet thought, because Leclerc started from P19 in Spain, that this penalty was for Canada. This is also partly because many people probably only read the “dropping back 15 places for the next race” part and then either stopped or thought they knew enough. However, the next race Leclerc would take part in at that time was Spain and not Canada. In short: the grid penalty of 15 places came on top of the P19 that Leclerc already had. Because the same had happened to Logan Sargeant, Leclerc did not drop to P20 but stayed on P19. In Canada, Leclerc will therefore not start the weekend with a fifteen-place grid penalty and will start with a clean slate.
