F1 LIVE: Ferrari mistakes are costing Charles Leclerc the world championship, warns Martin Brundle

Max Verstappen spared no sympathy for Charles Leclerc after the Dutchman took advantage of a race-ending engine failure for his Ferrari Formula One rival to cruise to an unchallenged win in Azerbaijan on Sunday.

“I would say sh*t happens, that’s racing, you know?” Verstappen, who experienced the heartbreak of crashing out of the lead in Baku last year, told reporters.

“It happened to me, it happened to many people in the past and unfortunately it’s happening to Charles.

“If I would be in the same situation, I would also be disappointed, I think that’s very normal, but it’s about how you come out of it.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is expecting a boost for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in forthcoming races, due to title rival Charles Leclerc facing a likely series of penalties.

As was the case last year, going beyond the permitted number of three engines per season means drivers incur drops on the grid.

And with engine trouble forcing Leclerc out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the weekend, leaving Verstappen a clear path to victory, Marko expects those issues to mean Ferrari are playing catch-up in at least a couple of races later in 2022.

Sebastian Vettel has proposed Formula One scraps budget and salary caps and instead implements a profit cap on each team, which once exceeded would generate money for good causes.

The biggest teams on the grid – Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari – have called for F1’s budget cap to be raised at a time when the cost of travel is rising significantly and squeezing their costs, while the smaller teams have urged the cap, which is meant to help level the playing field, to be retained.

There has also been debate around introducing a salary cap for drivers, but Vettel, who campaigns for environmental causes, believes that the system should be shaped so that F1 can “do great things” with the money the sport generates.

More on Lewis Hamilton, who has confirmed he will race at the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend despite suffering back pain from excessive “bouncing” at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton described the Baku race as “the most painful I’ve ever experienced” after the ‘porpoising’ along the long and bumpy straights left the 37-year-old “praying” for the finish line.

The Mercedes driver finished fourth but looked in discomfort upon exiting his car, raising concerns that he could be forced to miss the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend in what is a back-to-back.

But in an update on Monday, Hamilton said he had woken up feeling “positive” after receiving treatment from his physiotherapist Angela Cullen and said he would not be missing the Montreal race.

“Of course, [Mercedes] can fix it by raising the car but then they lose a huge amount of performance. So, they need to get the car low, stiff on the suspension and stiff on the side wall of the new tyres as well, and they’ve had to sacrifice comfort for performance.

“What’s surprising, really, is that Mercedes just can’t seem to get a handle on what looks like, actually, quite an excellent car, if they could just unlock it.”

“We’re into the thick of a 22-race season, races are coming relentlessly at us. If you’ve got one big issue, you go and fix it, but there are various gremlins that Ferrari are having.

“Reliability is costing him heavily now, a chance at becoming world champion. Strategy cost him in Monaco of a chance of a glorious victory in his hometown.

“He loves Ferrari and Ferrari love him, in a way that, the last time I saw something like that was between Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team.

“There’s an awful lot of love to burn through there but right now, Leclerc must be feeling as bruised as Lewis’ back.”

Ferrari are costing Charles Leclerc’s world championship bid “heavily” as strategy errors and reliability failure continues to hold him back, says Martin Brundle.

Leclerc’s Ferrari engine gave out while he was in position to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the weekend, causing his second retirement in three races, while a mistake with his first pitstop probably cost him the race win on his home track of Monaco. The former F1 driver turned analyst Brundle believes Leclerc, who is now well down on championship leader Max Verstappen in the standings, could miss out on his first world title as a result.

“Charles Leclerc must be beside himself,” Brundle told Sky Sports. “He could have had four glorious victories; he’s sticking the car on pole position, driving beautifully and then this kind of thing is happening to him just way too much.”

Charles Leclerc after a costly retirement: “It hurts. We really need to look into that for it not to happen again. I can’t really find the right words to describe what has happened. It is just very, very disappointing.

“We were fast and didn’t have big problems in the first part of the season. But now it seems we have more problems even if we haven’t made massive changes to the car. It is difficult to understand.”

Max Verstappen on Charles Leclerc’s troubles: “That’s racing. It happened to me, it happened to many people in the past. Unfortunately, it’s happening to Charles,” Verstappen said when asked if he had any sympathy for his rival’s difficulties. “If I would be in the same situation, I would also be disappointed. I think that’s very normal. But it’s about how you come out of it, you always look at how to improve things. That’s what we did as well in the beginning of the season. And you learn from it. You don’t like it, you’re angry, but we turn it around.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is expecting a boost for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in forthcoming races, due to title rival Charles Leclerc facing a likely series of penalties.

As was the case last year, going beyond the permitted number of three engines per season means drivers incur drops on the grid.

And with engine trouble forcing Leclerc out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the weekend, leaving Verstappen a clear path to victory, Marko expects those issues to mean Ferrari are playing catch-up in at least a couple of races later in 2022.

“We want a fair fight,” he said to ServusTV. “Leclerc will now tap into a third engine and will have to change engines at least once or twice after that, with grid penalties being insurmountable.”