Leclerc took a shock pole position for Ferrari under unusual circumstances on Saturday after crashing at the end of the third quarter and ending the session early.
After the serious accident at the exit of the swimming pool, Leclerc and Ferrari were concerned about damage to his gearbox just to check that “no serious damage” had occurred.
Ferrari announced on Sunday morning that it would not change Leclerc’s gearbox and keep him in pole position, but when it cheered the car on before the race a problem quickly arose.
The team found that Leclerc’s car had been found to have a problem with the left driveshaft, which meant he was unable to start the race at all.
Ferrari F1 boss Binotto said after the race that the team was still working to fully understand the problem and that it could be completely unrelated to Leclerc’s Q3 crash.
“We have to understand what happened,” Binotto said of Sky Sports F1.
“The fault is with the driveshaft in the hub on the left. So it’s not a gearbox problem that we had. The gearbox was inspected last night, it was checked and I think the gearbox was fine for the race.
“What happened is on the other side compared to the accident. So it can be completely independent of the accident.
“But something we need to understand and analyze carefully, and we don’t have an answer right now.”
Mattia Binotto, team principal, Ferrari
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
When asked if Ferrari had ever had the problem before, Binotto replied, “No. Let’s wait and see. I think we can only carefully analyze the parts based on the data and try to come up with a clear explanation.”
Leclerc said after failing to make the start that it was “hard to take” after taking the opportunity to claim his first win since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.
Binotto insisted on Saturday that Ferrari wouldn’t take any chances with the transmission of Leclerc’s car for fear of resigning, but made it clear that the problem with the driveshaft had nothing to do with it.
“As I said, there was no transmission failure,” said Binotto.
“There was no gambling on the gearbox. We are confident that the gearbox would have been fine for the race.
“But what happened needs an explanation that we don’t have at the moment. As I said, we have to analyze.”
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