Antonio Giovinazzi’s qualifying effort for the Chinese Grand Prix was spoiled because the old-specification control electronics in his Ferrari power unit failed.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed Alfa Romeo had been unable to fit the new specification of control electronics supplied by the engine manufacturer following Charles Leclerc’s problem in the Bahrain Grand Prix.“We changed it because on Charles’ car it failed during Bahrain,” said Binotto. “We know that with the initial spec of the control units we had somehow reliability issues so we changed it simply for a better unit. So we changed it on Seb as well for precaution, we had to change it certainly on Charles’ because it had failed.
“We asked our customer teams as well to change that. Haas did it, Alfa didn’t do it for installation issues, they felt [it was] too complicated or too risky for the change they had to do on the installation.
“And as a result Antonio Giovinazzi had an issue again in quali. So hopefully it will be changed as soon as possible on that car as well.”
Binotto confirmed the change to the control electronics had no effect on the car’s performance.
Giovinazzi, who was also unable to run in first practice due to power unit problems, had to start from the back of the grid after the electronic problems prevented him from setting a time.
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Tim
17th April 2019, 7:25
also Binotto words:
If they changed it to old-spec, it lefts me wondering what is “old-spec” at the very start of the season? 2018-spec?
Also on GIO car in China they changed it to the new unit of the same spec which failed, so if after all they’re going to install the CE unit proposed by Ferrari to fix the issue, they’ll get grid penalty.
bosyber (@bosyber)
17th April 2019, 13:44
Sauber’s Vasseur said before that he takes the blame for GIO’s issue, as it was on his authority they did not take the ‘new’/old-spec unit as they didn’t think there was enough time to make the needed PU build-out,-in a good choice (bc. little time, chances of mistakes) for them Tim.
Fred
17th April 2019, 9:14
My humble honest opinion is i reckon that Ferrari can’t run on full power (qualy mode) disguising it as electronic issue. Either they turn the wick up and throw out reliability is the current verdict. What do you think @keithcollantine
Islander
17th April 2019, 9:51
Good design = never too complex
Good engineering = never too complex
Ferrari falls at the first hurdle
Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th April 2019, 9:58
They’re allowed only 2 CEs for the season, aren’t they? So that means any car that switched to the “new and improved” CE is facing penalties if the CE is changed again (not reverted back).
DAllein (@)
17th April 2019, 15:36
Correct