Mattia Binotto is looking to find answers regarding the latest reliability troubles they faced during F1 Azerbaijan GP for their team and also their customers.
Even though Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lost the F1 Azerbaijan GP lead to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, the Monegasque was in the thick of things in the fight. He had to fend off Max Verstappen at one point, but his charge didn’t last long.
His engine went off in a disaster for Ferrari after Carlos Sainz already retired due to hydraulics issues. In terms of their customers, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen also faced power unit troubles to retire from the grand prix.
At the moment, the analysis has to be done at Maranello, not just for their own cars but also the customer teams of Alfa Romeo and Haas. When asked if the new ERS and revised V6 for this year is the cause for so much trouble, Binotto had no answers yet.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” said Binotto to written media. “I need to get back and analyse. If I look at what happened to Carlos, I don’t think it’s power unit related. What happened to Charles, yes, is it something which is down to quality, reliability, whatever else, usage? I don’t know yet.
“There is no doubt that when you’ve got so many reliability problems, there is a concern. In terms of performance effort, we made a fantastic job to redesign the full power unit. That means as well that, overall, in terms of product, there is still very little experience. In terms of reliability, progress is still required. It is a concern.
“It’s even more a concern because I do not have the answer. I would like to have it right now, and be able to know what was the problem. We will need to fit another new engine. It’s a fact. It’s very early in the season. Sometimes the problems you may encounter are not a short fix. I don’t know yet what will be the strategy we need to adopt.
“Whether it’s simply shorter mileage, or a different type of usage, or a short fix. Whatever has happened is really a short fix solution. Something that we’ll understand in the next days.Hopefully we’ll have a clearer answer by the time we’re in Canada,” summed up Binotto, who admitted of disappointment that despite the engine regulations being seemingly stable, they are facing issues.
“I’m not surprised and certainly concerned and somehow disappointed, because I think it’s something that we need to try to fix, and we didn’t fix it yet,” stated Binotto. “I cannot blame the team, because I know what has been the effort they have put in order to address the performance from the past. I know it’s a long journey. We didn’t get enthusiastic at the start of the season. I think we will not be the last today.
“As I said it’s a journey which we are on, and there are still another step which is required right now. As a team again we will stay united, work hard. We have been able to do a proper job so far. W know that the job is not finished, but we will do it. I would rather prefer to have good performance and try to fix reliability rather than vice versa,” summed up Binotto.
This was the second DNF for Leclerc in last three races, who already had a larger trouble in Spain. His teammate Sainz has not only faced power unit related issues, but has had a poor luck scenario for long now. On the customer side, all four cars have had multiple troubles all-through the season thus far.
“Regarding what happened today to our customer teams, from what I’m aware of, what happened to Zhou is not related to the Ferrari supplied parts,” said Binotto. “It’s team related. What happened to Magnussen, yes, it’s something which again, we do not have full clarity right now. So if it is something similar to what Ferrari has encountered in the past or not? We have no answer yet.”
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP panned out
