FIA confirms Charles Leclerc decision after Spanish Grand Prix investigation

Charles Leclerc avoided punishment for failing to adhere to the delta time requirements in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix, with the stewards ruling that Ferrari, not the driver, was “exclusively at fault”.

Leclerc qualified in fifth place for the Madring’s debut Formula 1 Grand Prix as Lando Norris claimed pole position ahead of Kimi Antonelli.

FIA ruled Ferrari was ‘exclusively at fault’

Three drivers, including Leclerc, were summoned to the stewards after qualifying, having been cited for failing to comply with the maximum time limit between the two Safety Car lines.

But while Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto were given official warnings, in both cases the stewards accepted the drivers’ explanation that “it was difficult to maintain the delta due to energy management requirements”, the stewards ruled that Leclerc was not at fault.

Following an investigation, the FIA stewards instead put the blame wholly on Ferrari.

“The driver of car 16 [Leclerc] returned to the pits after setting his final lap time in Q3 without any other cars interfering and did not comply with the delta time requirements,” the stewards noted.

“During the hearing the team representative admitted that they provided the driver with a wrong delta time profile due to a miscalculation.

“Therefore the driver complied with the delta displayed on his dash, but as this delta time was not correct he inadvertently breached the delta time requirements.

“The stewards determine that in this case the team is exclusively at fault and the driver did not make any mistake. Therefore a penalty to the team is imposed.

“The stewards also take into account that in this scenario the deviating delta time provided to the driver did not have any performance implication for car 16 or any other car.”

Ferrari was handed a reprimand.

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Leclerc finished qualifying with the fifth-fastest time, 0.195s slower than pole-sitter Norris.

The Monegasque driver believes that being without Ferrari’s latest power unit specification cost him critical lap time.

Leclerc reverted to Ferrari’s previous specification as Ferrari did not have time to check his Monza power unit for damage following his high-speed crash that put him out of Ferrari’s home race.

“I think most of the people put a new power unit, or a newer spec, for today and I kind of had the same spec,” Leclerc told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media at the Madring.

“And that’s on me obviously for last week. So maybe I didn’t do the step forward that the others did on that side.

“Having said that, I think the lap was quite clean.

“I had few moments here and there, which I maybe lost a little bit. And when I see how close it is, it’s frustrating.”

Leclerc says he lost four-tenths of a second in the first sector alone, but isn’t sure exactly why.

“It was more the first sector on my side,” he said. “I lost, I think, four-tenths in sector one on my fast lap, so we’ve got to look at that.

“My out-laps were not ideal but four-tenths is a lot. So, I don’t really know what went on there. Sure there are many straights but I doubt that we are losing four-tenths in the straights.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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