Disaster for Ferrari as Carlos Sainz Jr. will not start the Qatar Grand Prix

Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images

Ferrari is dealt a massive blow in their fight with Mercedes

With Red Bull having already secured the Constructors’ Championship, and Max Verstapping locking up his third-straight Drivers’ Championship with his second-place finish in Saturday’s Sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix, the biggest bit of Formula 1 drama remaining is the fight for second between Mercedes and Ferrari.

Mercedes entered this week just 20 points ahead of Ferrari, but increased that lead to 26 with the results in Saturday’s F1 Sprint race. Part of that was due to a five-second penalty given to Charles Leclerc, which dropped the Ferrari driver out of the points.

Now they have an even bigger advantage in that fight in Sunday’s Grand Prix, thanks to some disastrous news for Carlos Sainz Jr.

Due to a fuel leak in his SF-23, Sainz will be unable to start Sunday’s Grand Prix. That leaves Leclerc as their only hope for points in the race:

If that were not bad enough, Leclerc is slated to start Sunday’s race in fifth position, behind the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Russell is slated to start on the front row alongside pole-sitter Max Verstappen, while Hamilton is just behind them, starting in third.

This is shaping up to be a solid week for Mercedes, and a disastrous one for Ferrari.

Unless Leclerc can pull a rabbit out of his hat.