(Paris) Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc will be penalized ten places on Sunday at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after the replacement of an electronic component during the Bahrain GP, ​​the Formula 1 team and the organizers announced on Wednesday.

The Scuderia had to replace this electronic component for the first time before the first GP of the season, and a second time before the scheduled race on the Jeddah circuit, while the regulations only allow one replacement per season for the same component. , at the risk of a downgrade of ten places, said Formula One.

On Sunday in Bahrain “we had two different problems” one before and the other during the race, Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur told reporters. “Unfortunately every time it was the control unit, the ECU,” he added.

“We have never experienced this kind of thing, I hope it is now under control, but we have made a deep analysis of this incident”, underlined the French engineer.

“Unfortunately we have to take the penalty in Jeddah because we only have two control units for the season,” he said.

This mechanical problem forced the young Monegasque driver to retire in the last third of the race when Ferrari was expected this season as the main rival of the Red Bulls.

Leclerc is already 25 points behind Max Verstappen, but, according to Frédéric Vasseur, “it is obvious that he remains motivated, we have only contested one race out of the 23” on the calendar.