Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, Binotto said:
He continued:
Ferrari spent much of the 2020 and 2021 seasons developing a brand new spec power unit that was re-designed from the ground up, after a controversial FIA directive at the end of the 2019 season neutered their previous spec power unit.
Throughout last season, the Maranello-based team brought in steady upgrades to the Internal Combust Engine (ICE) and hybrid systems to end up with a good power unit by the end of the season. However, in its quest to reduce its horsepower deficit to Honda and Mercedes, Ferrari seemingly overlooked issues that are turning out to be a major hurdle in their championship bid.
At first glance, the new power unit seems unable to fulfill the required mileage per unit and any attempts at running the power unit for more than three to four races has led to catastrophic failure. This has been true for both Ferrari and its customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas.
Meanwhile, Binotto has offered no guarantees on whether the team will be able to fix the issue in the short term. He added:
F1 power unit homologation played an important role in Ferrari overlooking reliability: Michael Schmidt
F1 journalist Michael Schmidt has claimed that Ferrari was right in prioritizing performance over reliability given the freeze in power unit development earlier this season.
Since the regulations allow for corrections later on, in the case of critical reliability issues, Schmidt believes the Scuderia was reasonable in taking the approach it took. In his column for Auto Motor und Sport, he wrote:
He further wrote:
While the regulations allow power unit manufacturers to modify their designs in case of critical reliability issues, the criteria is extremely stringent. Ferrari has already appealed to the FIA for a reliability modification, without much success however. Hence, it is to be seen whether the Scuderia is allowed to employ any potential fix that it may come up with.
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