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Carlos Sainz had some not-so-welcome news at the start of his Imola GP weekend. The Spaniard, who had just signed an extension deal with Ferrari, found out that he will have to take on a second power unit at Imola. The power unit that was expected to be introduced sometime between Miami and Barcelona was brought forward because the team found an issue with the existing one after his beaching in Australia.
A report by formu1a.uno said:
“A problem has been detected with Ferrari’s Power Unit that has been in use since the first weekend of the season in Bahrain, and which so far has not had any major problems except, before the start of the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah, where there was a wiring issue that got resolved in time.”
It further went on to state:
“The plan of the team was to introduce the second unit between the weekend in Miami and Barcelona after completing the data collection program regarding reliability. However, after the problem encountered, the Maranello team has decided as a precaution to bring forward the introduction of Power Unit number 2.”
The new power unit, a refreshed version of the old one, is expected to yield extra horsepower for Carlos Sainz this weekend and will be fitted during FP1. The report also mentioned:
“Because of the circumstances, Ferrari has been forced to prepone this introduction of the power unit by atleast one race and hence Carlos Sainz, already in Imola, will be equipped with the engine with ‘reinforced’ ICE, which will guarantee extra horsepower. The PU2 will be mounted immediately since it is a weekend with a Sprint Race format and the cars will enter parc fermé after the first hour of free practice.”
The current power unit can still be salvaged and will be used on Fridays in the upcoming races and even at a track like Monaco where the power unit is not the most decisive factor.
Carlos Sainz will be hoping for a return to form in Imola
Carlos Sainz, after his DNF in Australia, finds himself 38 points adrift of his teammate Charles Leclerc. The Spanish driver has not had a great start to the season and has been second best to Leclerc in all the races.
Now, with a confirmed extension at Ferrari, the Spaniard will be looking to take things further and start eating into the early lead developed by Leclerc.
