Ferrari discovers cause of Leclerc’s F1 driveshaft failure

The Italian team returned to their base in Maranello on Monday morning for a detailed investigation into what happened to Leclerc before the start.

The team had given the all-clear for Leclerc’s car and gearbox in the hours leading up to the race, but a rear left drive shaft hub failed during a pre-race exploration lap. Not having time to fix the part before the start of the race, Leclerc had to retire from the event and not take his pole position.

Motorsport.com believes the investigation into the Leclerc issue has concluded that the bug was a consequence of the crash the Monegasque suffered when it hit the guardrails in the third quarter.

And although the team checked the car regularly before the race to replace damaged parts, the left driveshaft hub was not inspected in detail.

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The team’s regular checklist of critical components that it examines and replaces after a crash includes a large number of components, but it should be understood that it focuses on the side of the car that was impacted.

So the right side of Leclerc’s car should have been examined more closely than the left.

But even if the left hub had been on the checklist for a visual inspection, it is not clear whether the team would have picked it up before the race.

The team’s data suggests the driveshaft hub worked properly for the first part of Leclerc’s first lap out of the pits, before failing at Turn 6.

However, given the events surrounding the failed driveshaft components, Ferrari will now revise and improve its processes to ensure that similar issues are better identified if recurring circumstances arise in the future.

It was clear to Ferrari on Sunday that the drive shaft failure was not related to his decision to stick with the same gearbox on Leclerc’s car for the race.

Team boss Mattia Binotto said: “The failure would have happened anyway, so it’s not about playing with the gearbox at all.”