After the complicated start to the season in Bahrain, which ended with a fourth place and the retirement of Charles Leclerc from the race, Ferrari had arrived in Saudi Arabia with the awareness that the Monegasque would have to serve a ten-place penalty on the starting grid.
However, at the start of the Saudi weekend, the Italian team had chosen to replace further elements not only on the Monegasque’s car, but also that of his teammate. More specifically, the Cavallino team had opted for the replacement of the engine on the two SF-23s as a precaution, in order to arrive with greater peace of mind at the post-Melbourne stop.
In Saudi Arabia, the replacement of the ICE was limited to the official team only, but on the occasion of the Australian Grand Prix it was decided to change the thermal unit also on the single-seaters of the two Prancing Horse customer teams, namely Alfa Romeo and Haas.
For now, together with Lando Norris and Nyck De Vries, who was forced to replace the entire Power Unit due to a problem encountered before the start of the third free practice session in Jeddah, the Ferrari-powered teams have been the only ones to mount the second internal combustion engine .
On the occasion of the Australian GP, all the teams driven by the Mercedes Power Unit also opted for the replacement of the exhaust system, switching to the second unit (third for Norris). The same operation also for Kevin Magnussen, the only Ferrari-powered one.
The rear end of the Mercedes W14
Photo by: George Piola
On both the official cars of the Star, those of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, the gearbox has also been replaced in all its components and, also in this case, it is the second unit.
No news, however, as regards Verstappen after the problems encountered in Saudi Arabia, who can continue to take advantage of the first gearbox that had been set aside at the end of free practice, to then be mounted again on the single-seater in view of the race.
Read also:
