Scuderia Ferrari admits there could be concern poor reliability may undermine the performance of the SF90, with less than two weeks until the first race of the 2019 Formula One season.
After a near-flawless first week of testing, the second was much trickier with Charles Leclerc having issues on Tuesday and Thursday before Sebastian Vettel’s test was cut short by electrical issues on Friday.
That means while the German did top the timesheet by 0.003s from Lewis Hamilton, there was frustration in his comments to the media.
“Overall, I am pleased with the work we have carried out,” Vettel said. “I am pleased with how the car behaves and it was well balanced at this track. However, we cannot be completely satisfied at the moment as we would like to be faster and more reliable. So there’s still a lot to do. There are still many issues to be addressed and we must push forward on the performance front,” he added. – “The fact that our car is running properly is a good starting point, but we are still not ready for Melbourne and I’d say it’s a case of a work in progress.”
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto agreed, dismissing the notion his team is comfortably ahead and also sounding the reliability alarm.
“To win we have to be the strongest and we’re not the strongest yet. I would like to see the car as a whole more reliable,” he stated. We are still trying to learn our car, to still find the limits of performance, and also reliability. These are very important for the preparation of the entire season.” – Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto concluded, as reported by the British and German media at the end of the testing session in Barcelona.
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