Ferrari debuted an updated hybrid system for its F1 powerplant on Charles Leclerc’s car at the Russian GP, with the Monegasque driver serving a rear penalty for the Sochi race, while the Italian team confirmed that Sainz would receive the upgrade later this season would .
In the team’s preview of the Turkish GP, Ferrari announced that Sainz would be doing the same update this weekend, meaning that he will receive a grid penalty for taking on a new drive.
Ferrari had planned to avoid both drivers starting the same race from behind, giving priority to Leclerc due to concerns about his energy storage device, which was damaged in his accident at the start of the Hungarian GP.
“As with Charles Leclerc in Russia, Carlos Sainz in Turkey will have a completely new engine with the new hybrid system,” the team said in its preview.
“So he will start from the end of the grid with the aim of climbing up in order to try and score some points.”
After the Russian GP, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto hesitated to assess the overall gain of the upgrade, but confirmed that it was a “step” in performance with a focus on the 2022 package. According to the current Formula 1 regulations, teams are allowed to update the specifications for each of their drive components every year.
Ferrari has also confirmed that Binotto will not be participating in the Turkish GP and will instead stay in Maranello “to focus on developing next year’s car”. Binotto will also follow the race weekend from the team’s factory “with a permanent connection to the team in Istanbul Park” after missing a handful of F1 races last year with the same setup.
Ferrari lost further ground to McLaren in the battle for third place in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship at the Russian GP and is now 17.5 points behind the Woking-based squad.
