F1 Ferrari: Mattia Binotto spies everyone on engine failures

Ferrari team principal Binotto expected the reliability problems: “Even in testing we knew we did not have an ideal situation”

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto in an interview with Motorsport returned to analyze the Maranello team’s Achilles heel this season, the engine reliability problems that have affected both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz this year, now both on their fourth power unit of the season with penalties attached.

The Cavallino executive explained that it was a very specific choice: to prioritize performance over reliability. “I don’t think we pushed too hard because pushing on performance is never enough, but we definitely prioritized performance over reliability.”

“We probably got to the time limit for homologation. Then you have to remember that even on the power unit front there was a restriction on the number of hours you can use on the test bench, and these restrictions had an impact on our work. When there were no limits, all you had to do was increase the work on the test benches, both in terms of performance and reliability, but today, being constraints of hours, you are forced to make choices.”

“We pushed the limits of performance beyond what would have been a normal reliability plan,” Binotto continued, “and this was because we knew it would be important to catch up with the competition before the four-season freeze arrived, knowing that reliability issues can always be resolved later. By this I do not mean that we arrived at the first race thinking that we were completely unreliable; that was not the case. No problems emerged in winter testing, but we knew we did not have an ideal situation.”