In just a few days, the Grand Circus had to move from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to the Canadian Grand Prix, a huge logistical challenge given the geographical distance between these two locations, which has given Ferrari no respite.
Last weekend, the Maranello team suffered a severe setback after the unexpected double retirement of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, leaving Baku with a zero in their locker that was a serious blow in their fight for the title with Red Bull Racing .
The two F1-75s were forced to retire in the first 20 laps of the race due to a mechanical problem, first the Spanish driver suffered a hydraulic failure and a few laps later, the Monegasque saw his engine say enough.
These are two very different breakdowns that affected their two single-seaters, one of which was identified quite quickly and a priori resolved: the one that caused Carlos Sainz to retire.
“The hydraulic components of Carlos’ car have already been examined,” Ferrari explained in a statement. “A short-term solution already exists for Canada, while work continues to find medium- and long-term solutions.”
In this way, it is confirmed that the rider from Madrid will be able to compete in the weekend without apparent problems, unlike his teammate, who still does not know the status of his defective power unit.
Said engine was sent to Maranello and during the day on Wednesday, the technicians of the Italian team will thoroughly investigate what happened. In other words, the Monegasque will probably have to mount a new engine in Montreal.
It remains to be seen if, once the problem has been identified, Ferrari manages to get any of the Baku engine components back into the stock of available parts for the rest of the campaign: “The Charles engine arrives at the factory [this Wednesday]. A first evaluation must be completed at night,” Ferrari said.
On Sunday, after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Mattia Binotto refused to “dramatize” the situation despite the large number of lost points: “We have done a great job to get here and we will continue to work hard, we will be even stronger in the future. Sometimes you need patience, the beginning of the season was positive, currently it’s a bit more difficult, but it can change again.”
