Ferrari Chief Technical Officer Mattia Binotto remains confident that Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen can avoid engine penalties in 2017, despite already using their allocation of Turbochargers for the season.
Under Formula 1 regulations, drivers are permitted four versions of the six components which make up the power unit, of which the Turbocharger is one.
Should a fifth version of any of the components be utilised, a driver will receive a 10-place grid penalty, followed by further sanctions if more parts be required.
Vettel and Räikkönen are both onto their fourth Turbocharger, with nine rounds remaining, but Binotto is sure that Ferrari’s rotation approach will mean a fifth version is not needed.
“Certainly it is somehow a concern in the fact that we had failure on the turbo at the start of the season and we have to replace them at the very start,” Binotto said.
“And [therefore] you introduce very early in the season turbo number three and turbo number four.
“Having said that, we introduce as well in the following turbos some modifications for reliability.
“They are running well at the moment, so we’ve got all the pool at the moment that have been introduced but we’ve got all the mileage available on each turbo.
“So we are rotating them and, obviously it’s our objective to conclude the season with the current pool of turbos.”
On the title battle between Ferrari and Mercedes, Binotto said: “There have been races at the start of the season where we have been competitive and others where Mercedes has been competitive.
“If you look, for example, Bahrain very early in the season, they have been very competitive in qualifying, we have been in the race.
“Certainly the development is very important. That has to be done race by race.”
Ferrari trails Mercedes by 39 points in the Constructors’ Championship, having taken four wins to the six achieved by its opponent.
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