After the positive weekend in Melbourne – where Scuderia Ferrari dominated even more than expected with Charles Leclerc – the Maranello team was able to carry out the classic routine checks on both F1-75 cars, including the two engines. Carlos Sainz retired from the Australian Grand Prix after just a few laps, due to an error which led him to being stuck in the gravel at turn 10, thus marking his first retirement since joining Scuderia Ferrari.
No serious damage to his car, and this is certainly a relief for the team in the budget cap era. However, a problem has been detected with the car’s Power Unit, which has been used since the first weekend of the season (Bahrain), and that so far has not had any major problems except, before the start of the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah, the one related to a wiring then resolved in time.
As Giuliano Duchessa reports for formu1a.uno, the plan of the Italian team was to introduce the second unit between the weekend in Miami and that of Barcelona, after completing the data collection program regarding reliability. However, after the problem encountered, Ferrari has decided to proceed with caution and therefore to bring forward the introduction of Power Unit number 2.
These circumstances have led to the decision to introduce the new engine at least one Grand Prix earlier and so Carlos Sainz, this weekend at Imola, will be using the power unit with the engine with ‘reinforced’ ICE, as well as being a fresh one, which will be able to guarantee extra horsepower. The PU2 will be run even on Friday since, being a weekend with a Sprint Race format, the cars will enter parc fermé after the first hour of free practice.
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The first unit, as understood by Formu1a.uno, can still be recovered and therefore reused during Friday practice sessions for more race weekends such as in the Monaco Grand Prix, where power units will count much less.
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