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Ferrari has said that it is worried about reliability issues affecting its championship battle with Red Bull this season. Team principal Mattia Binotto revealed that the team is looking into the root cause of its recent issues, but warned that there weren’t any quick fixes.
Speaking ahead of the Monaco GP, he said:
“Reliability is always a concern. It has been a key factor so far in the championship because we failed in Spain, and I think for Red Bull as well, they’ve got three DNFs, we’ve got one, and our customer teams got some as well.”
He continued:
“It’s certainly a big challenge when you’ve got concerns, it’s never obvious to fix them in a short time.”
Reliability is bound to be a major factor in the 2022 championship battle, given the issues that the leading contenders have faced so far this season.
But just as Red Bull seems to have gotten on top of its issues, Ferrari seems to be experiencing more problems. The Scuderia lost the lead in the World Drivers’ Championship for the first time this season after Charles Leclerc’s power unit gave up midway through the Spanish GP, forcing him to retire from the race.
Binotto says the issues that they are seeing, both with their cars and some of the customers' cars, are “worrying”.
He said:
“When something is happening, it’s never great. So, it’s worrying us. We are looking at what happened. Sometimes you’ve got straight explanations. It can be caused by external accidents. It can be caused by exceptional, let me say, circumstances. So other ones may be a true worry and concern.”
Ferrari “not too concerned” about Red Bull’s performance
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said that the team isn’t “too concerned” about the upturn in Red Bull’s performance in recent races. He indicated that the Maranello-based team is equipped to keep up with the Austrian Team in developing their car. Speaking ahead of the Monaco GP, he said:
“As for the performance, so yes, it is a concern. It doesn’t mean that we are too concerned, I hope Christian [Horner] is more than myself. But let’s do our best job from now to the end of the season and hopefully everything will be smooth and clear.”
The Ferrari F1-75 has consistently been the quickest car on the grid since the team brought its first major upgrade for the Spanish GP. Without a reliability issue at Barcelona and a strategic blunder at Monaco, Ferrari would still be leading both championships. It will be interesting to see whether the team can sort out its issues before the Azerbaijan GP on June 12, 2022.
