Reliability concerns over control electronics forced Ferrari into sudden changes

All Ferrari-powered teams were forced into last-minute changes over reliability concerns ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. The changes were made to the control electronics.

Ferrari confirmed they had to make the change as a result of Charles Leclerc's issue which cost him the Bahrain Grand Prix win.

“We changed it because on Charles’ car, it failed during Bahrain, so we knew that with the initial spec of the control units we had some reliability issues, so we changed it simply for a better unit,” team principal Mattia Binotto said in an interview on Crash.

“We changed it on Seb as well, for precaution. We had to change it certainly on Charles because it was failed, and we asked our customer teams as well to change them. Haas did it.”

Alfa Romeo didn't opt to follow the advice. A choice they were made to regret when problems occurred on Antonio Giovinazi's car. The issue prevented him from making a lap in qualifying.

“As a result, Antonio Giovinazzi had an issue again in qualy, so hopefully it will be changed as soon as possible on that car as well," he added.