Charles Leclerc will take at least a 10-place grid penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ferrari has confirmed.
Leclerc will be fitted with his third Control Electronics component, bringing him over the penalty-free quota for the season.
Leclerc had two of the parts fitted during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, the opening round of the year which took place earlier this month.
However, his power unit didn’t run trouble-free in the race as he retired late on with an issue while lapping in third place.
Ferrari’s decision to fit a third unit into the engine set-up means that he will start, at highest, in 11th for Sunday’s race in Jeddah.
“It is something we have never experienced in the past and I hope now it is under control,” team boss Frederic Vasseur said, as quoted by BBC Sport.
“But unfortunately we will have to take the penalty in Jeddah because we only have a pool of two ECUs for the season.”
The Maranello-based squad was hit with a number of reliability concerns throughout 2022, which struck Leclerc in race-winning positions in Spain and Azerbaijan.
Ferrari stated that it addressed reliability woes over the winter break, but the retirement in Bahrain marked a distressing sight for the team.
It was also unable to consistently compete against Red Bull throughout the weekend, who took a 1-2 finish to open their 2023 campaign in strong fashion.
“Bahrain was not as good as expected, and we have to react,” Vasseur added. “Everybody is working at their best to fix the issues.
“We have to keep the eyes open that we had issues in Bahrain in terms of reliability and we need to fix the issue of drivability.
“I am not negative at all. We had a clear analysis of what we did in Bahrain, we have a long list of what we need to improve and we are on it and I hope in Jeddah already we will be able to [make a step forward].”
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