Ferrari Reliability Austria
Ferrari Reliability Austria
And yet another weird weekend for Ferrari at the Austrian Grand Prix. The team would continue their streak of having a driver at the top step of the podium, this time it would be Charles Leclerc’s turn for glory while Carlos Sainz would take the heat both figuratively and literally as the Spanish driver blew out his engine while chasing down a seemingly helpless Max Verstappen who could be heard complaining about his tires degrading at a faster pace than what the team expected.
So what upgrade did Ferrari make to the F1-75 that made them so dominant in Austria? And when will Ferrari finally figure out their reliability problems? Do they have a plan in place? And what does this mean for Carlos’s future for the rest of the races this season?
Well, you’re going to have to stick around to find out. But before we get to it, consider subscribing to the channel because I can guarantee, that no other channel except “The Race” probably, uploads as frequently as we do. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to it…
Charles Leclerc was undoubtedly the fastest driver with the fastest car this past weekend in Austria. After chasing down Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the Monegasque would hold on and never relinquish his position to the Red Bull driver. And while skill and track conditions may have played a part to Leclerc’s dominance this past weekend, team boss Mattia Binotto believes that the team’s latest upgrade to the F1-75 played a huge part in the team’s performance in the Red Bull ring. In his words:
“With that new rear wing I think we simply reduced the gap. I think they still have got a slight advantage, but very little or negligible, and while in terms of power we are very close. Then it’s only about the grip limited in the corners where we can make the difference”
Charles would also share his thoughts as to why he thinks Ferrari was able to be so dominant in Sunday’s race when that wasn’t the case in Saturday’s sprint. Most fans and Charles’s teammate Carlos Sainz was puzzled as to why Charles seemed like he was choosing to hang back behind Max during the sprint race when the team had predicted before the race that degradation wouldn’t be an issue and that both drivers were instructed to have a full attack mindset. But after the race, Leclerc would share that he saw Saturday’s sprint race much differently and that he thought that preserving his tires in the earlier parts of the race would be more beneficial. In Charles’s words:
“Their tyre deg was more evident today,” said Leclerc on Sunday, “but it was there yesterday too, I felt. Yes maybe in hindsight if I’d pressured Max from the start of the sprint, it would have been clearer.”
And with a new rear wing that suits a track like the Red Bull ring more, the whole dynamic of the Red Bull/Ferrari race-day battles that we have come to enjoy this season is now on equal footing with Red Bull now not having as much of a straight-line speed advantage over the Maranello team.
But Charles’s race wouldn’t finish without any unnecessary drama brought about by his own team as Charles would be heard on the team radio complaining about this throttle pedal getting stuck. His complaints came only minutes after his teammate Carlos Sainz whom we’ll be talking about a little later, had to retire from the race after his engine caught on fire.
Now, Ferrari has been notorious for letting wins slip through their fingers and it seemed like the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix would be added to that long list. So much so that Mattia would admit in the post-race interview that he could not watch the race because of how nervous he was. In his words:
“I have to admit, I was very nervous. Disappointed as well with what happened to Carlos. But so nervous that I stopped watching the race in the last three laps.”
It seems as by now that it is a fact that the only people that can beat Ferrari is Ferrari themselves. And that if they don’t self-implode, the team will be able to give Red Bull a real challenge for the title. Speaking of self-implode, as mentioned before Carlos Sainz may have had the scariest incident this season after his car caught on fire during the race. Luckily though Carlos was able to get out of it just in time. But what does this mean moving forward for Carlos and the team? Well W Series champion Jamie Chadwick believed that the incident made life easier for Binotto and the team. In a recent podcast episode BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast, Jamie would join BBC Journalist Andrew Benson and host Jack Nicholls where she would say:
“One of the most striking things for me after Sainz’s retirement was Mattia Binotto on the pit wall – the camera showed him with his head in his hands,” Nicholls said of the Ferrari team boss’ reaction to the failure. He’s got black curly hair and his fingernails were scraping through it in that frustrated manner. And when he lifted his head up again, the colour was indistinguishable from his T-shirt, like it was really a pained situation for Binotto. Because not only has this happened and cost them second place and a 1-2, this will hurt Sainz further down the road. Leclerc has already had to take an engine penalty, surely this will affect Sainz on that front too.”
As we can remember, Charles had to take an engine penalty in Canada after suffering for power unit failures in Barcelona. And Andrew Benson believes that Sainz would be following in the very near future saying:
“Sainz has already used his allocated three engines this season. So we are now at the halfway point of the season and he’s certainly got one engine penalty looming pretty soon. It looks like both he and Leclerc will have another engine penalty beyond that, given their engine usage at the moment. I’ve not heard Ferrari have a fix for this problem yet – they are managing their engines. So I think Sainz could even have an engine penalty at the next race in France. That’s a real blow for his title hopes, which he thought he was in with a shot at after winning at Silverstone.. But actually, paradoxically, in terms of the championship, it actually gives them a clearer picture from now on at the halfway point in the season,” he said. Leclerc now has quite a decisive advantage over Sainz. It might make their life a bit easier in terms of making Leclerc their definitive number one.”
And as to the specifics as to what the exact problems were to Sainz’s car, Mattia would reveal that the likelihood of it being the same to what the team experienced in Baku is very high. In his words:
“Obviously we need to look at what happened today. Is it the same we had already in Baku with Charles? Very likely. It’s certainly a concern, but the people back at Maranello are working very hard try to fix things. Obviously, looking at what happened to Carlos, it has not been solved yet. But we have new elements and I know how strong they are working and how good they are. I can count on them that it will be addressed very soon, and hopefully as soon as possible.”
And when asked for a timeline for when he thinks the team will finally be able to figure out their reliability issues, Mattia would say:
“We have a very good performing engine. That gives me hope for the future when we have found a way to make it reliable as well, These are problems that worry us for the coming races, not in the long term. I am convinced that we can solve it as a team. For this kind of intervention you need time: you need to design, produce and homologate new components for reliability. A few weeks are not enough. In the short term we will try to manage it in terms of kilometres”
But while Mattia is still can’t put an exact finger as to what and when the team will figure it out reliability-wise, former F1 driver and Champion Mika Hakkinen believes that the team has made positive strides in terms of their strategy saying:
“Ferrari’s race strategies have caused some problems this year, but not on Sunday. When they saw Max switch to a two-stop strategy they followed, but by making their pit-stops significantly later they always retained a strong tyre advantage. This is the kind of confident strategy Ferrari will need to maintain if they are to consistently challenge Red Bull. Carlos’ engine failure shows Ferrari still have work to do on reliability and I’m sure they must know where the problems lie,” he said. Charles cannot afford to have those kinds of failures if he is to close the gap to Max. In fact, he needs Max to have a non-finish if the points gap in the World Championship is to really close down.”
As we speak, Charles trails Max by only 38 points. And while Carlos may not like to hear this but I do agree with the ongoing notion that the team should define who they’re number one driver is, and at least for this season, I agree with the team choosing Charles at least for this season given that he is higher in the drivers’ standings. But what do you think? Will Ferrari be able to save their season? Or will they self-implode again some ways down the line? And who would you want Ferrari prioritize at least for this season? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
