Charles Leclerc request granted as Ferrari holds investigation over hidden problem
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc frowns as he faces the media at the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has declared that he “needs more info” about the intermittent engine issue he suffered during the recent Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
It comes after Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, vowed that the team will “investigate” the cause of the problem.
Ferrari to investigate cause of Charles Leclerc engine problem
Leclerc arrived in Baku having set pole position for the previous four editions of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but his weekend failed to hit the heights of recent years.
The Ferrari driver crashed out of qualifying before coming home a disappointing ninth, having been embroiled in a team orders drama with teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc agreed to swap positions in the closing stages to allow his teammate to attack the cars ahead – Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson – on fresher tyres, but was left frustrated when Hamilton failed to return the place before the chequered flag.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
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Despite indicating that Ferrari’s “rules were not respected” by Hamilton, Leclerc maintained in the aftermath of the race that he did not “care” about missing out on eighth place after a disappointing weekend in general.
As revealed by PlanetF1.com last week, however, he was heard describing the botched swap as “stupid” and “not fair” over team radio at the end of the race.
Leclerc also revealed that he had to contend with an intermittent engine problem in the early stages in Baku with the power available to him changing from one lap to the next.
He said: “Unfortunately, I had a quite big power unit issue for 10 laps in the first stint and we don’t really know what is the reason for that yet, because it kind of came back from one lap to the other.
“We don’t know what happened, so I need more info about that.
“It’s not like it’s been there for the whole race – I was fine towards the end.
“But in the phase where I think we probably had the chance to actually overtake cars, I was just stuck in DRS [trains] and very slow down the straight, so I couldn’t do much in that first phase after that.
“I had full power [for] the second part of the race and it still wasn’t enough to get past, so it was a very frustrating race.”
More on Charles Leclerc and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com
Vasseur estimated that Leclerc’s issue cost him around 0.5 seconds per lap and vowed to identify the cause ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The Ferrari team boss said: “We had an issue with Charles’ engine, which we will now investigate.
“Even if it was marginal, it was enough to prevent him from being able to overtake in a straight line, which explains why we were stuck behind Lawson.”
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