Ferrari suspect the engine failure which put Carlos Sainz Jnr out of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix was a repeat of a problem which caused another retirement three races earlier in Azerbaijan.
Charles Leclerc dropped out of last month’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix while leading, due to an engine failure. Yesterday Sainz’s car came to a stop with 15 laps to go with an engine problem which quickly turned into a major fire.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto explained the internal combustion engine has been responsible for two of the three race-ending power unit failures the team has experienced this year.
“I think we’ve got only two engine failures so far,” he said. “Obviously ‘power unit’ [failures], more than two, but in terms of internal combustion engine, two.”
Binotto said the initial indication is Sainz’s failure shared the same cause as Leclerc’s previous one.
“Obviously, we need to look at what happened today. Is it the same we had already as the one in Baku with Charles? Very likely.
“It’s certainly a concern. But the people back at Maranello are working very hard trying to fix them, which is not solved yet and 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, how good they are, and then I can count on them that it will be addressed very soon, hopefully as soon as possible.”
Leclerc said the failure is “definitely a concern” for the team.
“We need to look into that and make sure that it doesn’t happen. Obviously it happened twice on my side in the last five races and now Carlos again. So we need to get on top of this as quickly as possible.”
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2022 Austrian Grand Prix
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