The sad face of Carlos Sainz after retiring on lap 56 of the 2022 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, when he was chasing Max Verstappen to get a new Ferrari one-two at Red Bull’s house, was darker than the burned bodywork of his F1 -75, which had been charred by a sudden failure in the power unit.
The Spanish driver, increasingly comfortable with the red car, saw his hopes of fighting for the world championship literally vanish due to a breakdown that put him 75 points behind the championship leader and 37 behind his teammate, Charles Leclerc.
The disappointment of the man from Madrid was fully justified, although there is a small ray of hope to lift the morale of the winner at Silverstone, and it seems that the engine that failed at Spielberg was not the third, but the second, which has already been in five weekends (Canada, Azerbaijan, Spain, Miami and Imola).
The good news is that the explosion would not come from the youngest engine of the Spaniard, but from a power unit that would have considerably exceeded its useful life. However, it was too little to counter the pace of the RBPTH001 riding Red Bull on its back, which runs like a Swiss watch.
Staff led by Enrico Gualtieri are working to find a solution, although Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto admitted: “It is possible that the failure was the same as Leclerc’s in Baku. In Austria we could have gotten another one-two and we didn’t we did it, that’s proof that we haven’t overcome the reliability problems yet, so we have to push harder.”
“Now we will analyze what happened in Sainz’s car and try to understand it to find short-term solutions,” said the Maranello team manager.
In fact, dismantling the Spaniard’s engine has confirmed that the six-cylinder had the same fault as the one that stopped the Monegasque in Azerbaijan, thus identifying a powerful but fragile section of the 066/7 that needs to be strengthened.
The FIA prohibits the development of the engines, as they are frozen by regulation, but allows the work if the interventions are aimed at durability. Carlos Sainz, therefore, could face a sanction in France for mounting the fourth power unit, the first with improved reliability, because Paul Ricard is a simple track to recover positions, and with a more powerful engine he will be able to go on the attack .
The Spaniard, in any case, has the third power unit that has only been in the British Grand Prix, and in Maranello they do not want to find surprises in a Hungarian appointment in which they trust in a double. The need to get out of penalties is also because they need a lower mileage engine for free practice.
Sainz, therefore, will pave the way for his thruster program, although he will do so based on the results he has, and the rotation of the elements will be changed according to the circuits. The same happens with his partner, Leclerc, who has two more power units, so he can go to France and Hungary without fear.
Ferrari is in a crucial phase of the season and, if it solves the engine problem, it will have a serious chance of competing in the 2022 world championship against Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
