An unexplained Ferrari power-unit deployment problem cost Charles Leclerc straight-line speed and effectively ruined his Sprint qualifying in Shanghai, leaving him sixth on the Sprint grid. Leclerc radioed the team during SQ3 — “This deployment, my god,” and “What the hell is happening?” — and said he lost “around four tenths” on the back straight and “about half a second” on his second SQ3 lap.

Team figures varied slightly on the magnitude of the loss — Frédéric Vasseur said Leclerc “lost something like three tenths in the last straight line” — but the net result was a heavily compromised one-lap time: Leclerc was more than three tenths down on Lewis Hamilton and roughly a second adrift of George Russell, who set the SQ3 benchmark.

Ferrari acknowledged the deployment issue and said it would analyze the data to determine whether the problem could be resolved or managed for the Sprint and the main race. The car’s situation in Shanghai highlighted a contrast between strong cornering and weak straight-line punch: Ferrari had briefly trialed a distinctive “Macarena” rear wing in FP1 before withdrawing it, a change that reportedly improved corner performance but exacerbated the deficit on the straights. Mercedes’ qualifying edge was clear — Hamilton and Russell topped the timesheets and rivals warned Ferrari must urgently close the power shortfall — yet Leclerc and the team said they remained confident they could be relatively stronger in race trim and hoped to recover during the races.

Sources