Ferrari replace Leclerc’s chassis after FP2 crash

Ferrari has been forced to build up a new chassis for Charles Leclerc following the Monegasque’s crash in Friday’s second practice session.

Leclerc lost grip on the exit of Les Combes and clouted the barrier on the left-hand side of the track, a mishap that triggered a red flag but also significantly damaged the Ferrari driver’s SF21.

With the Scuderia pressed for time ahead of Saturday’s running, the team decided to discard Leclerc’s chassis altogether and build up a new car.

Team boss Mattia Binotto said the crash had been the result of a “a small mistake”, while Leclerc claimed to be puzzled by his car’s change of behaviour between Friday’s sessions.

Read also: Leclerc ‘would’ve preferred to not end the day in the wall’

“We need to understand because we didn’t change much on the car so there is definitely plenty to understand and hopefully we will do a good enough job,” Leclerc said.

“But yeah, I am confident that we’ll be able to do a good enough job to understand what went wrong in FP2 to be better tomorrow.”

Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz clocked in P11 at the end of FP2 and the Spaniard said he was also left with a “strange” impression of his car’s handling.

“At the moment we are on the verge of the top 10, which is not at the level that we were in Hungary or Silverstone, for example,” said Sainz.

“But at the same time, I feel like the car today felt quite a bit strange and there’s quite a bit of time to come from nailing a good set up for tomorrow and improving it.