Since the winter tests, the Ferrari engine had given positive signals regarding its reliability. After a few rounds of this seasonal start, however, the Maranello engine is starting to make the Scuderia fearful and customer teams Haas e Alfa Romeo. The championship is long, but withdrawals and problems begin to take their toll.
Red alert
After the first three rounds of the season, the least reliable power unit seemed to be that of Red Bull powertrains: department aimed at managing the engines of Red Bull and AlphaTauri, with thealongside Honda. Between Bahrain and Melbourne, the RB18s of Milton Keynes had left the drivers stranded for a total of three times: a 50% failure rate. Verstappen was the driver hit the hardest, forced to retire both in Bahrain than in Australia. The seventh round of the season concluded, the engine Red Bull seems to have recovered reliability, while the Ferrari one seems to have lost it, and a lot.
Signs of failure
Bottas had to give up numerous free practice sessions due to engine malfunctions, the last one in Monaco during FP1. In the Spanish heat the PU 066/7 of Zhou e Leclerc they gave a lump sum, costing the Monegasque the provisional championship leadership. The last notable case was the withdrawal of Magnussen during the Monaco Grand Prix on lap 19, after his teammate on the same weekend Schumacher had blocked the pit lane on Friday due to a MGU-K failure. The little horse's engine gave excellent results on the bench, but something is wrong on the track. Supremacy in terms of horsepower is not enough, and if the Scuderia wants to fight for the title can't afford zeros which weigh so heavily on the economy of the championship.
Magnussen's words
The Danish driver spoke out about the failure that cost him his retirement: “We had a power unit problem, so we had to collect the car, unfortunately there was nothing to be done. I thought our race pace was good, considering that we were in wet to dry conditions, that I had managed to keep Gasly behind until our problem and that I was closing in on Bottas. It would have been really interesting to see what could have happened during the pit stops".
SOURCE: FormulaPassion
