Binotto: 'Replacing Sainz' chassis was more efficient in terms of time'

Carlos Sainz has received a new chassis for the Spanish Grand Prix, it was announced earlier today. This comes with no consequences for the driver, considering it is still within the allowed amount of parts to be used. Following the new build for Sainz, Mattia Binotto at Sky Sports stated the exact reason.

As a precautionary measure, Ferrari replaced Sainz's chassis because a leak had been found. Binotto says: "We had to check the chassis because we had some leakage on the fuel system, not clear where it was coming from. We would've lost time working out where it came from so we opted for a new chassis."

He continued: "Looking at yesterday's data, we need to make sure we have the right car balance and set-up for the drivers. The balance is a key element so we focused on set-up and set-up. Tyre deg is a big worry for all the teams."

Ferrari has found that their tires wear faster than those of the other teams, and this was also a reason to take a different approach to the set-up. Binotto: "In the high fuel runs, we had more deg than we expected and our direct competitors. We worked on that overnight, come with a different approach and set-up today which will hopefully be the right one to be competitive tomorrow in the race."

Judging by how the Ferraris are performing so far in the free practice sessions, however, that seems to be fine, but the real difference will be seen during qualifying later today.