Mattia Binotto web ST

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Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has addressed their team’s reliability issues as they were forced to retire both their drivers because of several car-related issues. Spanish driver Carlos Sainz suffered a hydraulics-related problem in the Lap 9 of 51. Then 11 laps later, Monegasque driver and championship contender Charles Leclerc when smoke was seen pouring from the back of his F1-75. 

“Reliability is always a factor, a key factor in the [championship] battle along with performance,” Binotto said during the press conference in Baku. “I think as a team we pushed certainly a lot through the winter last year to develop the car."

“We proved that we are not yet fully reliable, there is still some work to be done. But as I think we did not get euphoric at the start of the season, we will not be devastated now; the team will stay focused, working hard to try to address those issues to make us stronger for the future,” he added.

We need certainly to fix what was the issue, make our power unit stronger for the future: Binotto

In the same press conference, Binotto didn’t reveal a lot about issues with Leclerc’s car and talked about how the team is looking to improve the reliability of the F1-75. He said: “We’ll take some time to analyse, to understand and maybe some of those [issues] are the same as the past events, maybe not. I don't know yet."

“We need certainly to fix what was the issue, make our power unit stronger for the future… It’s really early right now, the engines and the power units will be back to Maranello, we will analyse and investigate. I’m pretty sure we will find, as a team, a solution. That team has proved that they are capable of addressing the problems.”

I think we need to analyse those [DNFs]: Binotto 

Binotto then addressed the issues faced by the other cars using the Ferrari engines like Alfa Romeo and Haas. He talked about how they will analyse the issues in the other cars. He stated: "I think we need to analyse those [DNFs], I think the one of Zhou is maybe not related to our supply components but again something to look at. Overall, whatever is happening there it is always useful…"

"That’s why we are supplying customer teams; not for the business – it’s not great for economics – it’s more to have technical feedback. So what’s happening is certainly useful and we’ll take as much time to analyse those components, as much as we are doing to the ones that are fitted on the red cars."