After a disastrous Asian leg which has practically crushed Sebastian Vettel's title hopes, Ferrari is boosting its quality control department with a new hire.
The Scuderia has appointed Maria Mendoza, an expert in metals and chemicals, to help the red squad with its efforts in improving reliability.
A crash in Sepang, a power unit failure in Malaysia and a defective €59 spark plug in Japan have left Vettel hopelessly behind Lewis Hamilton in the title fight, with a 59-point deficit with just four races remaining.
"It was a technical nonsense that had an impact on a car that costs millions of euros," fumed Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne after last weekend's race.
"It's a problem we've probably ignored over time because it was never of much importance.
"We now need to renew our commitment to the quality of the components we use for F1.
"On at least three occasions it has had a devastating impact on the Scuderia's performance. We will fix it," he promised.
Marchionne has promoted Mendoza from another department within the Fiat-Chrysler group, where the Spaniard was in charge of a 25-person quality control group for the past five years.
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