Leclerc retired due to engine failure while leading the race, while Carlos Sainz was out due to a hydraulic issue at Baku.
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In the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Italian team was plagued by a double retirement, with Charles Leclerc retiring due to a spectacular engine failure while leading the race, followed by Carlos Sainz retiring due to an unconnected hydraulic issue. In Barcelona, Leclerc’s power unit failed, and customer teams Haas and Alfa Romeo have also experienced problems, with Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu both withdrawing from the Baku race with suspected engine-related difficulties. Mattia Binotto said he wasn’t surprised the team had some reliability problems after it made a huge effort to upgrade the power unit.
“I’m not surprised and certainly concerned and disappointed,” he said. “Because I think it’s something that we need to try to fix, and we didn’t yet. But I cannot blame the team, because I know the effort they have put in to address the performance from the past. I know it’s a long journey, and we didn’t get enthusiastic at the start of the season. As I said it’s a journey which we are on, and there is still another step which is required right now.”
“I think as a team again we will stay united, work hard. We have been capable of doing a proper job so far, we 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.” expressed the Scuderia Ferrari’s team principal.
The team’s main concern, according to Binotto, is that it doesn’t have a concrete solution to the causes of the persistent power unit dependability concerns. “It is a concern,” he said. “It’s even more a concern because I do not have the answer, and I would like to have one right now, and know what was the problem. Only the fact that we will need to fit another new engine, yeah it’s a fact, it’s very early in the season. Sometimes the problems you may have are not a short fix.”
“So I don’t know what will be the strategy we need to adopt, if it’s simply shorter mileage, or a different type of usage, or a short fix, because whatever has happened is really a short fix solution. So something that I think we’ll understand in the next days, and hopefully we’ll have a clearer answer by the time we’re in Canada.” revealed Binotto.
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Binotto brushed aside suggestions that the team must win in Montreal next weekend to resurrect its title hopes. “I don’t think that it is a must win at all. We will be focused race-by-race, try to optimize our potential on the weekends. Today certainly something went wrong, and it’s not only the reliability, we need to look at all the details.” said Binotto.
