Charles Leclerc Will Start Last In the Canadian GP

On Saturdays, Charles Leclerc has been the class of the Formula 1 world all year. The 2019 pole award winner is well on his way to a second, crushing competition from Red Bull Racing at just about every turn in qualifying. On Sundays, he and Ferrari haven't been able to keep up with those expectations. Now, those Sunday misfortunes have bled into a Saturday: Ferrari have decided to replace every major component of Leclerc's hybrid powertrain this weekend, guaranteeing him enough grid penalties to lead him to start last in tomorrow's race regardless of where he qualifies.

Leclerc is taking on a new V-6 engine, a new turbocharger, and new whole systems from both hybrid units (MGU-H and MGU-K) before Sunday's race. Some of that was necessary after last Sunday's unrepairable engine woes, while the rest is being introduced largely because Leclerc was already forced to accept a significant grid penalty to take on the other new components. Now, Ferrari is able to introduce refreshed (and potentially updated) components that can last longer into the season all at once rather than suffer a handful of smaller penalties throughout the Summer. Unfortunately, it also means that the team is effectively punting on a race for their lead driver while he's in the middle of a championship fight with Max Verstappen that had already begun to go sour.

And it gets worse from here. Since Leclerc has already taken on enough components to begin dipping into penalties in June and Ferrari's reliability problems still do not seem to be solved, he will be in the penalty range on these parts for the rest of the year. They will still need more refreshes over the remainder of the season, so Leclerc could be taking many, many more grid penalties before the season ends at Yas Marina in November.

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