Leclerc hit with 10-place grid drop amid constructors’ battle

Ferrari are locked in a tight battle for the constructors’ title with McLaren but this will be a big blow to their chances, and also to Leclerc’s of finishing P2 in the driver’s standings.

Charles Leclerc in Abu Dhabi. — Leclerc will have a 10-place grid drop penalty for the final race of the year. Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Media.

The issue arose before Leclerc even got out on track in free practice 1 and kept him in the garage for 20 minutes of the session, hampering his ability to get out on track with his brother Arthur Leclerc, who took over Sainz’s car for the session. Eventually the opportunity came for the brothers to make history as the first brothers to be teammates in an F1 session.

Leclerc had avoided taking a penalty for an additional energy store (ES) component all season, influencing the size of this penalty now – with the initial replacement coming with a 10-place drop, and any subsequent coming with 5. This is in contrast with his teammate, Sainz, who has already exceeded all of his PU component allowances of the season by one (except for exhaust).

Ferrari sit just 21 points behind McLaren in the standings and so need to outscore the papaya squad by 22 points to claim the title. While this penalty won’t help their chances, Leclerc did have a strong start to his weekend, topping the times in FP1 ahead of Lando Norris by 0.221s, with Lewis Hamilton ending the session in third.

Further down the grid, there are 5-place grid drop penalties for both Williams drivers as Alex Albon has taken his 6th gearbox of the year and Franco Colapinto has taken the 7th of five allocated gearboxes.

Alex Albon on the grid in Qatar. — Several crashes this season has meant Williams have to take new gearboxes for each car. Credit: Williams Racing Media.

Williams have suffered several large scale crashes throughout the 2024 season, influencing the number of parts they’ve had to take and their budget too. Not only were the gearbox cases and cassettes replaced on both cars, but also the driveline, gear change components and auxiliary components to give both drivers the best chance of completing their seasons.

This comes after James Vowles, Williams team principal, revealed that the team had flown extra personnel into Abu Dhabi to ensure they were “back up and racing” for the final round. Vowles also confirmed that the crashes suffered by Colapinto and Albon in Qatar had left them with damage to their gearboxes, perhaps making this penalty unsurprising.

Williams currently sit a lonely P9 in the standings, with 13 points back to Sauber and 29 ahead to VCARB, meaning these penalties are unlikely to affect their final place by the conclusion of Sunday’s race.