Leclerc puzzled by Ferrari failures after strong early races

©Ferrari

For the second time in three races, Charles Leclerc failed to see the checkered flag, his Ferrari suffering a costly engine failure in Baku that once again puzzled the Monegasque.

Leclerc had secured his fourth consecutive pole in Azerbaijan but was beaten to Turn 1 at the start by Red Bull's Sergio Perez. However, the Scuderia charger wrestled back control of the race after an early Virtual Safety Car period and held a comfortable lead over championship rival Max Verstappen.

But on lap 19 of 51, the Ferrari F1-75's engine suddenly gave up the ghost, leaving a gutted Leclerc to coast back to the pits, a trail of smoke in his wake.

The failure followed teammate Carlos Sainz's own breakdown due to a hydraulic issue on lap 8.

It couldn't have gotten any worse for Ferrari, but Leclerc found it difficult to wrap his head around the reliability issues impacting the Italian outfit after its impeccable record in the early part of the season.

"We’ve been fast and we didn’t have big problems in the first part of the season," Leclerc told Sky F1.

"Now it seems we have a bit more compared to the beginning of the season, but we haven’t changed massive things. If anything, we made things better.

"So it’s difficult to understand, but we will have to analyse it.

"Obviously, I don’t have the full picture of what happened today, but, personally, again, it hurts."

Read also: Easy win for Verstappen after double Ferrari failure in Baku

Ferrari's painful implosion in Baku coupled with Leclerc's DNF while leading the race in Barcelona have left the latter third in the Drivers' standings, 34 points behind Verstappen.

"It’s just much harder, any DNF is hard obviously, now it’s not the third in row but to be honest Monaco felt like a DNF.

"It’s the third disappointment in a row and it’s not easy.

"But overall I’m confident that mentally I will be as strong as I was five races ago – when I was leading the championship – at the next race.

"The motivation is still there but we need to get on top of those things and obviously reliability is something that we need to look into after the last three races. As a team maybe we need to do a step on that."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.