Ferrari following serious reliability issue: "We don't have an explanation"

F1 News

22 May 2022 at 17:56
  • GPblog.com

Charles Leclerc lost a lot of points at the Spanish Grand Prix after his retirement. Max Verstappen takes the lead in the drivers' championship as a result. Team boss Mattia Binotto is trying to remain optimistic despite the loss.

"We don't have an explanation yet for the sudden engine problem, but it's definitely a serious reliability problem. The engine will go back to Maranello overnight and tomorrow morning we will disassemble it," Binotto told the Sky Sports camera.

Despite the outage, Ferrari was fast throughout the weekend. Leclerc managed to take pole position on Saturday and the Monegasque immediately managed to create a gap towards Verstappen in the race. So the updates did do their job, keeping Binotto positive.

"Overall it has been a positive weekend because we brought upgrades and the car was fast. We got a fantastic pole yesterday and the race pace was great. After a few races where we struggled with tyre management, at least today we proved that we were pretty fast," said the Ferrari team boss.

Sainz struggles

For Carlos Sainz, the race again did not go as planned. Like Verstappen, the Spaniard spun in Turn 4, losing a lot of time with damage to his floor. In the end, he still finished fourth in his home race after Lewis Hamilton suffered a water leak.

"Carlos is struggling a little bit more. He's doing well, Charles is doing very well. He's able to have an aggressive balance, which Carlos can't do. Today it's unfortunate that he lost downforce and balance by going off, but he'll get there. The season is still long."