The failure that shows Ferrari is on the back foot

At 10.34am on Friday, the final day of the first 2020 pre-season Formula 1 test, the engine in Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari cried enough. As Vettel was running from Barcelona's high-speed Campsa right-hander and down to the hairpin of Turn 10, the tune from the SF1000's power unit changed for the worst.

Author Alex Kalinauckas

Updated Feb 21, 2020, 9:13 PM

He tried to crawl back to the pits, but had to abandon that plan on the uphill climb towards Turn 11 and pulled off, bringing out the red flags for only the second time in the test at that stage. The four-times world champion climbed from the car, then crouched and inspected the situation at the rear, which Ferrari soon clarified was an engine failure – the spent power unit soon to be sent back to Maranello for a full analysis to be carried out.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF1000 stops on track

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

Vettel did get back out – but only after nearly four hours (including the lunch break) had passed. Ironing out reliability issues is what testing is all about, but team principal Mattia Binotto soon explained why Ferrari could have done without the issue.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.