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BINOTTO OPENS UP ON FERRARI’S RELIABILITY ISSUES

By Auto Action

Following a Carlos Sainz engine failure in Austria, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has publicly addressed the plague of issues faced by the Scuderia this season.

The Swiss-born Italian engineer also admitted that he was ‘so nervous’ over the closing stages of the Austrian GP, that he couldn’t watch as Charles Leclerc fought to hold on over the fast finishing Max Verstappen.

“I have to admit I was very nervous, disappointed as well for what happened to Carlos (Sainz), but so nervous I stopped watching the race the last few laps!” said a relieved Binotto.

I think we need to confirm what happened to Leclerc’s throttle. From what I heard, the only initial feedback is more a mechanical one, but I cannot give you more details than that.”

Following the engine failure from Sainz as he was hunting P2, Leclerc started to experience throttle problems after showing enough pace to comfortably pass Verstappen for a third time.

Mechanical problems, although not welcomed, are not as much of a concern compared to the power unit and engine failures that have so far followed Ferrari’s up and down 2022 campaign.

“I think we’ve got only two engine failures so far; the others were power unit more than internal combustion engine,” Binotto stated.

We need to look at today and see if it is the same issue as the one in Baku with Charles … Very likely, but the people back at Maranello are working very hard to try and fix that, obviously we cannot tell what happened to Carlos yet.”

We have new elements, and I know how strong they are and how hard the team are working, how good they are, and I can count on them that it will be addressed very soon – hopefully as soon as possible.”

Despite the issues, Ferrari have still managed to post back-to-back victories, and Binotto remains upbeat heading into the French GP after a consistent display of pace.

Ferrari’s pace and tyre management was evident over the Sprint and Qualifying in regards to its battle with the Red Bull cars.

“I think in terms of pure speed, we are very similar, and qualifying is proving it. I don’t think there is much difference between the two cars,” said Binotto.

If any, it was tyre degradation and maybe in the Sprint, I think we had a bit more, let me say, advantage in tyre deg.”

This was even more evident today because we started putting pressure on Max since the very start, pushing him, more pace causing him more degradation on the tyres, so I think what we saw in the Sprint has been more obvious today because we put more pressure on him.”

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