Baku, 12th June 2022

Today, for the first time this season and indeed for the first time since Australia 2009, failures linked to reliability meant that Scuderia Ferrari failed to get either of its cars to the finish line. Carlos’ race ended on lap 9 with an hydraulic problem, while Charles had to retire after 21 laps with a power unit problem, when leading the race.

Regrets
It is very disappointing that for the second time in three races, Charles had to retire his F1-75 while leading, thus missing out on a very possible big points haul. This was Carlos’ third retirement of the season, although it is the first due to reliability problems. The World Championship resumes in a few days’ time with next Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Charles Leclerc #16
It’s a disappointing outcome for us today. At the beginning of the first stint on the Mediums we weren’t particularly strong, but towards the end of it, we started catching Checo (Perez). During the Virtual Safety Car, we decided to take the opportunity and pit for Hards, which was the right thing to do. It put us in a position where we could lead the race and what we had to focus on from then on was managing the tyres to the end. We then had an issue with the power unit and had to retire. It’s time to go home and reset before Canada. We have to get on top of things and come back stronger there.

Carlos Sainz #55
Today’s result is hard to accept. After the start we opened the gap to manage the tyres and try to extend the first stint longer into the race. Unfortunately, a hydraulic problem occurred on lap 9 and that was it.
Together with Charles’ issue, this is definitely a difficult day for the entire team and our fans, as we lost valuable points and mileage. For one reason or another, it’s been complicated to build a strong momentum so far this season.
However, we are a very strong team and I have absolutely no doubt we have the ability and determination to come back stronger. There is still a long way to go this year. On to Canada.

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal & Managing Director
This is undoubtedly a bad day. Compared to last year, we have made great progress in terms of performance, however there is definitely still room for improvement on the reliability front.

In a week’s time we will be in Canada where we will aim to make up for this. Before then, we will analyse the failures we experienced here and will try to manage them until we can get on top of them. There is definitely still work to do.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal
“We end our Sunday here in Baku with a feeling of disappointment, as our streak of consecutive points finishes comes to an end after five good races. It was a big blow to lose Zhou with a technical issue today: until then, he had delivered an excellent performance, without a single mistake, and he was destined for the points. He deserved a good result today, but at least we can look at his performance knowing he’s on an upward path. Valtteri had a difficult race and we have to analyse what went wrong: we weren’t able to extract performance from the car throughout the weekend, and it’s something we need to address before Montreal to make sure we return to the level we have been competing at this season.”

Valtteri Bottas #77 C42 03
“We came here hunting for points and we leave with none, so I am obviously not very pleased about how our weekend went. Today it felt like a very long race as we were lacking pace: I believe there was something fundamentally wrong with the car, something we need to investigate. We will need to figure out what exactly happened before we get to Montreal, but I am convinced we will understand it and address it. Other than the outright pace, we did well as a team in terms of strategy and race execution, but that wasn’t enough to bring home the points. I feel quite sorry for Zhou as he was doing a really good race prior to his retirement: today was not our day, but I am looking forward to Canada next week. It’s been a while since we raced there and it’ll be nice to be back.”

Zhou Guanyu #24 C42 04
“It’s frustrating not to finish today, but I want to focus on the positives of my performance. Until the issue, my race had gone really well: I didn’t do any mistake, I was competitive and I was running in the points. I had good pace and I know we could have brought home a good result. What happened is unfortunate, but the most important now is that we, as a team, solve this issue for the future so that we stop missing out on the opportunities we have. We’ll investigate what the issue is in detail and we’ll make sure we do come back stronger.” 

Esteban Ocon
"It was a very challenging race today, so to come away with a double points finish and another top ten is a positive. Like always, we’ll debrief as a team to see what areas we can improve for next time. We were quick on both Friday and Saturday – we can count ourselves slightly unfortunate in qualifying which did not help our track position today - so there is definitely more potential there if we can piece it all together. We can leave Baku feeling positive and we’re already looking forward to returning to Canada next weekend where the aim is to keep scoring points.”

Fernando Alonso
“The race was difficult to execute today but we did well, and I am happy with seventh. We obviously benefited from a few retirements, but these things happen, and we were there to capitalise on them and really maximise our strengths. I overtook a few cars on the new tyres and we were very fast on the straights so that was useful. Our power-unit is looking strong and competitive, so this is always a good thing. We are very close with a number of cars at the moment, and I expect it to be quite similar in Canada. Let’s aim to score more points there!”

Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine Team Principal
“The aim today was to have both cars finish the race inside the points and we’ve been able to achieve that. The characteristics of the Baku City Circuit brings a unique challenge to both the drivers and the cars and we felt if we could get both cars across the chequered flag we would be in the points. There was more potential in our package this weekend. Esteban was unfortunate in qualifying, which put him slightly further back on the grid than we would have liked. That said, both drivers drove smart, well calculated races today when it counts for points and we can be pleased that both made up places and into the top ten. We’ll debrief over the next couple of days and we look forward to heading back to Montreal next weekend for the highly anticipated return of the Canadian Grand Prix. We’ve moved into fifth in the Constructors’ and we’re looking ahead to make further inroads on fourth place.”

Temperature: air 28°, track 56°

All front runners start on Medium tyres.

Start
At the start, Perez gets ahead of Charles, while Carlos stays fourth.

Lap 9
Carlos stops with a technical problem. Virtual Safety Car.

Lap 10
Charles pits for Hard tyres.

Lap 11
The race resumes with Perez ahead of Max Verstappen, with Charles third.

Lap 17
Perez pits for Hard tyres, dropping to third behind Charles.

Lap 20
Verstappen also pits for Hard tyres, rejoining second behind Charles.

Lap 22
Charles has to retire with a PU problem.