Ferrari targeting quality control improvements - Binotto

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Malaysian Grand Prix
© XPB 

Ferrari tech boss Mattia Binotto says the team will improve its quality control procedures following the Scuderia's recent poor run of reliability.

In Malaysia last weekend, Sebastian Vettel was deprived of running in qualifying after an engine failure while team mate Kimi Raikkonen was hit with a similar technical issue on the grid the next day which prevented the Finn from starting the race.

In the aftermath of the Sepang disaster, an angry Sergio Marchionne vowed to undertake changes in Ferrari's engine department. Binotto has since revealed that quality control is the team's main focus.

"I think that to improve your performance you need to improve your car and your package but as well you need to improve your organisation," he said.

"What we are considering is something that was already planned: it is to reinforce our quality [control] department. It is as simple as that.

"Our quality department is already somehow reinforced and that is the change of organisation that our chairman was meaning."

  • Renault prepared to double Budkowski's gardening leave

While specific and diligent, Ferrari's efforts can't guarantee a complete termination of the problem it experienced in Sepang.

"You can never be fully confident of solving the problems you have got," he said.

"It's true that the problems we had were completely unexpected; there are problems that we did not experience both at the dyno or at the race track during the entire season.

"There were some quality issues with the parts. We failed an inlet manifold of the engine, from the compressor to the cylinder heads, and it happened twice.

"We had the same problem with Sebastian in qualifying and Kimi in the race.

"Obviously it happened twice in Malaysia, in an entire season, so certainly some boundary conditions have affected the overall reliability. This is something that we are analysing.

"In parallel we reinforce the components, but it's something which we still need to better understand."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter