F1: 'It hurts' says Leclerc after another Ferrari disaster in Baku

Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc admits that he feels "hurt" after suffering yet another massive engine failure while leading the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday. This is the second time in three races that he has had to bow out of a race while in the lead, causing him to fall back significantly against both Red Bull drivers, who secured a 1-2 finish after the retirement of both Ferraris.

There is no question that Ferrari has the pace to win races, as seen in the opening rounds of the season as well as Leclerc's consistent ability to secure pole position. Unfortunately, he has now failed to convert four consecutive pole positions into a victory. Two of those, in Spain and Baku, were due to power unit failures.

After the race, Leclerc spoke to the press to express his grief. "It hurts. We really need to look into that for it to not happen again. I can't really find the right words to describe. It's very, very disappointing. We really need to look into it."

He admitted that he felt confused because the cars had the pace, and they did not appear to have major reliability issues at the start of the campaign. However, things have made a massive turn for the worse in the past five races.

"We've been fast, and we didn't have particularly big problems in the first part of the season. Now it seems we have a bit more compared to the beginning, but we didn't change massive things. If anything we made it better so it's difficult to understand for now," he said.

After leading the championship by 40 points after the first few rounds, Leclerc now finds himself 34 points adrift of reigning world champion Max Verstappen. What's worse, Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez has leapfrogged Leclerc into second place.

"We will have to analyse. Obviously, I don't have the full picture of what happened today. Just personally, again, it hurts," he said. The Monegasque driver echoed the same sentiments on social media, saying "It hurts again. But I'll never give up."

Meanwhile, the other Ferrari driven by Carlos Sainz broke down even before Leclerc suffered a power unit bust-up. The other Ferrari unfortunately had a different problem, with a hydraulic failure forcing the Spaniard to retire on the ninth lap.

The Ferrari garage cleared out early while the Red Bulls took maximum points from Baku. It was a complete disaster for the Maranello-based team, just a few months after installing themselves as the early favourites to win both titles this season.

"It's a big shame. It's a bad day for the team but we need to make sure we stay together, stay positive, stay calm," said Sainz after the race. However, just like Leclerc, he is insisting that Ferrari will remain united and determined to find a solution as soon as possible.