Shock in Formula 1 due to the crisis at Ferrari: Leclerc met the president of the Scuderia and one of the chief engineers resigned

Ferrari was 15 years old without a diploma in the Drivers’ World Championship in the Formula 1 and this season he would hit the same drought at the builders. Unlike other lean times in typhoid, it took them 21 years to celebrate a Pilots scepter, when in 2000 Michael Schumacher He brought them back to glory, over the past five years strategic errors and other failures have marked the setbacks of the Scuderia which continues to worsen its crisis according to the news from Italy, until a summit meeting requested by one of its runners, Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque had a good run in the season opener in Bahrain and after starting third he overtook Sergio “Checo” Perez (Red Bull) and came second. He tried to go chase the chief, Max Verstappen (Red Bull), but on lap 42 the SF-23 stalled due to loss of power and its engine said enough.

It was another blow for the house of Maranello and in the pits the face of Piero Ferrari, one of the Commendatore’s sons, said it all. Ditto the angry face of the new team leader, Frédéric Vasseur. Meanwhile, Leclerc consoled himself by drinking water next to his car and also chewed his anger. As if that weren’t enough, his partner’s car, carlos sainzlost momentum and was overtaken by Fernando Alonsoonly with sound Aston Martin got his podium number 99 in the Máxima.

Every time Ferrari stumbles or worsens a bad streak, it affects Italy and the whole planet because of the millions of typhoids suffered by the Italian team, which, due to its popularity and history, is one of the sports teams with the most fans on the planet. . It is the only team that has existed since the birth of F1 in 1950 and has won 16 constructors’ titles and 15 pilots’ titles.

A head must have rolled and David Sanchez, chief automotive concept engineer, resigned four days later. He was the “father” of the cars since the former team boss, Mathias Binotto, was in charge of management until the end of last year. With him advice from historian Rory Byrnethe technician developed the SF-75, the 2022 car, which debuted with a 1-2 last year at the same Sakhir track, but later in the season was overtaken by Red Bull and the Verstappen’s double championship with crowning debut.

Leclerc has a contract until the end of 2024, but he has already raised the alarm. This is how he would have met the Ferrari Chairman John Elkanngrandson of Gianni Agnelli, the founder of Fiat, whose group of companies bought part of the shares of the Scuderia in 1969. According to reports The Sports Gazette“the disastrous first GP of the season scared the driver, who came to talk to the President in Maranello”.

The reaction of Leclerc, who is characterized by having a low profile, being neat when it comes to declaring and being a product trained at the Ferrari academy, where he debuted in 2019 and won five victories, has draws attention.

“It is likely that Leclerc wanted to share his point of view with Elkann (there is a direct relationship between the two) and receive guarantees. Your contract with Prancing Horse expires at the end of 2024, interest from Mercedes has been mooted on several occasions, but that is not the issue Charles is worried about,” the Italian outlet added.

This meeting between Leclerc and Elkann came in the wave of rumors of a possible arrival of Lewis Hamilton a Ferrari. The Englishman has not signed his renewal with Mercedes and that is why some have mentioned his possible incorporation into the Scuderia, such as the journalist from Sky, Simon Lazenbywho said: “He is so desperate for that eighth title that if Ferrari were able to hold on and they were closest to Red Bull, he would go to Ferrari ahead of Aston Martin.”. But this transcended contrasts with the year of the contract that Leclerc still left at Ferrari, the same extension that Sainz has.

On lap one, the red machines suffered degradation from softer compound tires than the other leading cars. His poor performance collided with Verstappen’s landslide victory and Red Bull’s performance as they won 1-2 with Checo Pérez. The Austrian monopostes were unattainable and everything indicates that they will again be the benchmark this season, the second date of which will be next weekend with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on the Jeddah street circuit.

After the crown obtained by Jody Schechter in 1979, the Scuderia was without drivers’ titles until the aforementioned consecration of Schumacher. But in between they had years of competitiveness and in 1982 and 1983 they managed to win the constructors’ championships, which they also achieved in 2008, a year after the crowning of Kimi Raikkonen, the last that gave them a crown in the Drivers’ World Championship. Since the birth of the hybrid era, there was hope between 2018 and 2019 with the triumphs of Sebastian Vettel in the first half of the season, but the alleged irregularities with the flow of fuel in the second of these seasons revealed the Maranello house and the secret agreement with the International Federation of Automobiles (FIA) gave him yet another layer of suspicion.

The engine released in 2022, the 066/7, was competitive at the start and even Haas (driven by Ferrari) came third in the team competition on the first dates. It looked like the Scuderia were going to have their glory year, but they ended up suffering another season to forget. At 25, Leclerc is finding it increasingly difficult to win the crown in this context of the Italy team and he has already made this known to Elkann. Are there any other internal changes coming to the team?

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