Marc Gene admits Ferrari had a very disappointing weekend in Baku with a double retirement. Charles Leclerc was in the lead when his engine failed, and the former driver-turned-team-ambassador acknowledges that the Scuderia were hugely disappointed.
“Every time we had a retirement with Charles, he led the race” he said on the F1 Nation podcast. “It’s even more painful in Baku, because we made the right strategic decision. But in the end, you don’t see it in the result.”
“And every time we make a bad strategic decision, we are also in the lead. Every time we make a mistake, reliability or strategy, we lose 25 points and when we don’t make that mistake, we don’t win. always. So it’s very painful.”
Gene tries to see the glass half full by highlighting the reassuring performance of the F1-75 in Baku, on a track where top speed was essential. Gene goes further by betting on a victory for Leclerc, if there hadn’t been this problem.
“Of course there are positives. The main one is that it was a very high speed circuit where you would have thought Red Bull was stronger, and I think Charles would have won the race. The tires went all the way with [Daniel] Ricciardo and [Pierre] Gasly – they did a lot of laps.”
“So we have the pace, and that’s the main thing. You want to have the pace and then from there you have the reliability. But we were more aggressive than Red Bull. I’m sure that was the good strategic decision, so it shows that the team is not so influenced by the difficult week we had after Monaco.”
“But if you think about the championship, and now you look at the standings, it’s a very high mountain to climb. You can do it with a car as fast as ours. But today it’s something big. worrying because two other cars had a problem.”
“The car is fast on all types of circuits”
The Spaniard displays unfailing optimism, assuring that the Ferrari was the fastest car in the race. Leclerc could surely have fought with Verstappen at a stage of the race, and according to him it is a sign that Ferrari and its driver can come back.
“It’s amazing how Red Bull have collected so many points. We can do it the same way and with the car we have, for sure we can do it. Now we have to see what the reliability problem. Depending on the engine problem, sometimes you need to revise the design and production.”
“And it’s not something you do from week to week. But the good thing is that the car is fast on all types of tracks. We went from Monaco to Baku, we got the pole and we were the fastest car in the race, so why not grab those 50 points?
The porpoising may have created a breakage that led to the retirement, and Gene assures that the engine that failed is the same spec that showed flawless reliability at the start of the year.
“Nothing has changed. I remember after winter testing I even said openly that reliability is one of Ferrari’s strengths. And we’re talking about three months ago. So no, nothing has changed. I can tell you that in the telemetry room, nobody expected this, it was really an unexpected breakdown.”
“So now we’re going to analyze it, at least to find out where it comes from. It’s the second engine, but it has exactly the same specifications as the first. So we haven’t made any reliability changes, the engine is exactly the same.