Nico Hulkenberg may have secured an outstanding seventh-place finish for Haas at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend but the result did come with a major concern. As soon as the German crossed the line, his Haas lost power.
In the past few days, Haas have done their best to evaluate why the VF-23 lost power and their conclusion is not good news for any of the Ferrari-powered cars. The American outfit revealed that Hulkenberg‘s car had an MGU-K breakdown. This is the same issue that affected Haas in four races last season.
Moreover, it is important to note that troubles with Ferrari’s power unit are not new as the works team themselves suffered engine trouble with Charles Leclerc in Bahrain this season. Since another major issue has propped up after just the third race, fans have flooded social media with memes.
Memes flood Twitter as Hulkenerg’s Haas suffers MGU-K issue
Ferrari engine is a huge concern for works and customer teams
Even though Ferrari and their customer teams do seem to have produced a car with a decent pace this season, it is their reliability struggles that often result in them underperforming as compared to their rivals. Ferrari’s own works team is a prime example of the same.
Charles Leclerc qualified a fantastic third on the grid in the season opener in Bahrain, only to secure a DNF because of a power unit failure. The engine issue also hurt the 25-year-old Monegasque in the next race in Saudi Arabia as he was forced to take a 10-place grid penalty.
Since F1 teams have a limit on the number of power units and their supplies that they can use, Ferrari-powered cars are likely to have significant concerns over the course of the season. The likes of Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo will need to be wary about this as for every extra power unit they use, they will incur massive penalties.
