Ferrari is working to try and implement changes to ensure it does not suffer a repeat of the brake failure sustained by Lewis Hamilton in Singapore.
Ferrari is to accelerate its search for fixes to its systems to ensure it does not suffer a repeat of Lewis Hamilton’s brake failure, ahead of the “critical” Mexico City GP.
In Singapore, Hamilton was running seventh, but with more than a pit-stop gap behind him, Ferrari elected to stop him for a second time for a set of soft tyres to try to catch and pass the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli as the two teams battle Red Bull for runners-up in the constructors’.
Ultimately, just as Hamilton caught Antonelli, his front-left brake failed, with team-mate Charles Leclerc spending most of the race in ‘LiCo’ mode – lift and coast – to protect the brakes from such failures.
After his brakes failed, Hamilton was rapidly caught by Fernando Alonso, who carved 42.6s of the 43s lead out of the ailing SF-25 in the final three laps, with Hamilton crossing the line ahead, but ultimately received a five-second time penalty for corner cutting, finishing eighth.
The Ferrari machine has been subject to the need for lifting and coasting throughout the season, but the upcoming Mexico City GP poses a huge headache for all F1 teams with cooling.
With Mexico City 2,240m above sea level, the air density is considerably lower at that altitude than at sea level, meaning there is less air available for brake and engine cooling – with teams often having to resort to extreme measures to ensure important areas of the car do not overheat.
As such, Ferrari has explained that it is initiating an accelerated search at Maranello to ensure its systems are robust enough to predict any such failures, such as Hamilton’s.
“Singapore is very demanding for the car with the brakes, and Formula 1 is always a trade-off between risk and pushing it to the limit,” Matteo Togninalli, the head of track engineering, explained to media, including
“In Singapore, we consciously approached qualifying and the race with a car that we knew was on the limit, because the car had been designed like that, and we were aware that in the race, we would need some management for the brakes.
“Then, due to the situation, due to the level of management we did, we ran out of brakes with four laps remaining, we were a bit too aggressive. That was a mistake, and you have to admit when you make mistakes.
“We are reviewing the data, our methods, because everything is based on the process, and we are trying to understand how we can improve the ability to predict how we would finish the race, the ability to predict that we would be short by four laps.
“The next critical race will be Mexico, and because of the air density, we are speeding up the process.
“It was a mistake in hindsight; the result was not what we wanted, so by definition it is a mistake.
“Our tools and methods were not able to predict that the choice was too aggressive, so we have to improve the tools to be able to predict what is going to happen.
“You want to finish the race when you have finished the fuel, the tyres and the brakes, and if you are wrong by four laps, you are gone.
“So we are speeding up the process of improving the tools. We have good samples because most of the time, you learn from critical cases.
“If everything is smooth and easy, it is difficult, so when you are at the limit, you learn, and in Mexico, we will have to be more conscious – that is just a reasonable approach.”
