Formula 1: Charles Leclerc’s Bahrain Grand Prix has set the tone for his season

The engine failure that cost Charles Leclerc a victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix has effectively set the tone for his 2019 Formula 1 season.

In just his second Formula 1 race driving for Scuderia Ferrari, the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc appeared to be well on his way to earning what would have been the first victory of his career after taking the first pole position of his career.

But with only 10 laps remaining in the 57-lap race around the 15-turn, 3.363-mile (5.412-kilometer) Bahrain International Circuit road course in Sakhir, Bahrain, Leclerc’s engine experienced an issue.

As a result, what was once a lead of more than 10 seconds over Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton in second place evaporated, and Hamilton passed the 21-year-old Monegasque for the lead before going on to win the race.

Meanwhile, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas ended up passing Leclerc for second place later in the race. Leclerc had to settle for a third place finish, which was still the first podium finish of his career.

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Had Leclerc won this race, he would have had 36 points through the season’s first two races, and he would have sat in a second place tie with Hamilton in the driver standings behind Bottas with 41 points. But instead, he sat in fourth in the standings with 26 behind Bottas with 44, Hamilton with 43 and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’ Max Verstappen with 27.

While there is no correlation between the engine failure that cost Leclerc what  would have been the first victory of his Formula 1 career and the results of any of the four races that have been contested since the Bahrain Grand Prix, this engine failure has effectively set the tone for his season.

Since this race, Leclerc has finished no higher than fifth place, and he sits in fifth in the driver standings as well, considerably outside of the top four. Verstappen sits in fourth with 78 points while Leclerc has scored 57 points.

It is no secret that Ferrari’s strategy blunders have done a lot more harm than good to Leclerc’s results and that their blunders have far outweighed Leclerc’s blunders when it comes to his lack of great results, but nevertheless, this overall lack of great results that Leclerc has experienced over the last several races is rooted in the momentum killer that was the final 10-lap stint of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

A similar thing was the case last season for Bottas.

Bottas was leading the season’s fourth race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with three of the race’s 51 laps remaining, and had he won the race, he would have taken the lead of the driver standings for the first time in his Formula 1 career.

But debris from a crash that had just taken place caused the right rear tire on Bottas’s car to go down with under three laps remaining, which prevented him from finishing the race. Hamilton went on to win it as opposed to finishing in second place while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished in second as opposed to third and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished in fourth as opposed to fifth.

Instead of leading the driver standings with 65 points over Vettel in second place with 64, Hamilton in third with 63 and Raikkonen in fourth with 45 points, Bottas sat in fourth in the standings with just 40 points.

Just four races into the 21-race season, the 29-year-old Finn sat more than one race’s worth of points behind Hamilton, who led the standings with 70 points, and Vettel, who sat in second with 66. Raikkonen sat in third with 48 points.

Bottas ended up going the whole 2018 season without winning a race, and he finished in fifth place in the driver standings. Meanwhile, Hamilton won the fifth championship of his career after an 11-win season.

Will Charles Leclerc’s recent string of lackluster results following the heartbreaking end to his chance of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix come to an end at any point throughout the remaining 15 races on the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 schedule? If so, when will it end, and will it end in the form of the first victory of his career?