Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will not be using new engines in China, they will instead use there first race engines from Bahrain, despite them both being changed as a ‘precautionary measure’ in Australia.
Engine reliability has hit the Ferrari team hard so far this season. Alonso lost an engine in Malaysia after suffering a gearbox problem, which Ferrari’s engine and electronics department head Luca Marmorini agreed were connected.
“In Sepang, Fernando’s engine suffered a structural failure, of a type we had never seen during the winter. We believe there was a role played by the unusual way in which the driver had to use the engine during the race, because of the gear selection problems he experienced right from the start,” he told the official Ferrari site.
Sauber, who use Ferrari engines, also suffered a double failure in Malaysia, the first resulting in Pedro de la Rosa not even making the grid.
Marmorini however, confirmed the Sauber issues weren’t related to those experienced by Alonso.
“Additionally, there is no connection with the problem the Sauber team experienced on the engine front at the last race, which we believe was down to an issue with electronic sensors.
“Each car has eight engines it can use per driver over the season and we plan our useage strategy around this. As a precaution, we opted not to use the Bahrain race engines in Australia, but they will be used in China, having concluded that they are fit for purpose, despite what happened at the Sakhir circuit.”
