The 2022 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona unfortunately recorded the first retirement due to a technical issue for a Ferrari F1-75 in the 2022 Formula One season. Charles Leclerc’s car fell silent shortly after a third of race in Barcelona due to an obvious problem with the power unit that forced the Monegasque to take the pit lane and stop the car in the garage. Earlier this season, Valtteri Bottas had to raise the white flag in Saudi Arabia due to overheating problems, the same issues that stopped his Alfa Romeo teammate Guanyu Zhou yesterday in the Spanish Grand Prix, raising some concerns for the Maranello team.
In Miami, Ferrari had introduced the second power unit for this season with specifications linked to reliability on all single-seaters powered by engines made in Maranello, but this was not enough to avoid the problems recorded at Montmelò (the two retirements in the Spanish Grand Prix must be added to the issues encountered by Valtteri Bottas on Friday free practice).
Charles Leclerc therefore finds himself with some components of the power unit ‘2’ certainly irrecoverable, while the opponent for the conquest of the 2022 Formula 1 world title Max Verstappen is still using his first power unit that in all probability will also be used in Monaco before introducing a new one for Baku and Montreal, which are more power sensitive tracks
However, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is not worried about the prospect of having to take penalties on the grid in the second part of the 2022 F1 championship because Mercedes demonstrated a year ago that this can also be seen as a strategy.
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Here are the comments of Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto in the press conference which was held at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona: “Three power units are certainly too few. To manage the season properly, Mercedes last year proved they needed to use six and they were able to win the constructors title. It is true that we had used three in 2021, but we were doing a separate championship. It would not be surprising if we use four this season, given that others reached six last year fighting for a title. Three is the limit beyond which penalties are given in terms of places on the grid, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not manageable.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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