Twist in Madrid Ferrari power deficit between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
The power units used by Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Madrid has been a talking point.
As of Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were running the same specification power unit in their Ferrari Formula 1 cars.
It was known that Leclerc would be forced to use Ferrari’s old ADUO 1 power unit for the weekend in Madrid as a consequence of his huge crash at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, while Hamilton was set to continue with the team’s upgraded ADUO 2 engine that was introduced at Monza.
That was the case on Friday, but according to Sky Sports F1’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz, Hamilton switched back to Ferrari’s old specification power unit ahead of Saturday’s action.
“Lewis has given the new power unit with the development to the ADUO, the opportunity for development upgrade that he ran in Monza, Lewis has returned that to pool to save the mileage on it,” Kravitz reported.
“He is running the same power unit for the rest of the weekend as Charles Leclerc. So there is no longer, after Friday, from today [Saturday] onwards, there is no longer a power deficit between Leclerc and Hamilton, which is good for Charles Leclerc.
“Not a massively power sensitive track, so they can give the new engines a bit of a rest around here.”
Hamilton qualified fourth for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, outpacing Leclerc by just 0.006 seconds as the seven-time world champion missed out on a first pole position in three years by 0.189s.
Leclerc had suggested after qualifying that being on the old Ferrari engine cost him.
“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 said after qualifying.
“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.”
The Monegasque was ultimately unsure as to whether the deficit was down to pure power, or time that went missing in corners.
“It was more the first sector on my side,” he explained. “I lost I think four tenths in sector one on my fast lap, so we've got to look at that.
“My outlaps were not ideal but four tenths is a lot. So, I don't really know what went on there. Surely there are many straights but I doubt that we are losing four tenths in the straights.”
Ferrari needs to conduct further assessments of Leclerc’s ADUO 2 power unit before knowing whether it can be used again.
“For now, we don't know yet,” Leclerc admitted. “There are some checks that we have to do. So yeah not 100% sure yet.”
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