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F1 Hungarian GP: Ferrari searches for gearbox frailty solution

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says investigations into its recent gearbox failures have begun at Maranello and is confident of a solution before the next race in Hungary.

Sebastian Vettel suffered gearbox problems for the second consecutive race weekend with his Ferrari and picked up back-to-back five-place grid penalties in Austria and Great Britain.

Early analysis into the problem is believed to be a material fault within the gearbox components but a full analysis will be run by Ferrari in order to find a solution.

"I suspect that it's related to the material, I hope that it is not related to the calculation," Arrivabene said. "It's the third time that we have this problem and I think it's a concern. It's something that we need to resolve as soon as possible."

Arrivabene also says before Ferrari considers introducing new upgrades for the SF16-H the team must resolve its recent reliability woes but has hinted update are still in the pipeline.

Ferrari has already switched part of its development focus on to 2017 ahead of the regulations revamp, while also hinting at early work for 2018, but has continually stated it is still aiming to reel in Mercedes this season.

"At this stage of the season you can't have unbelievable upgrade," he said. "First of all, you need to fix certain problems to make sure the car balance and then you could have the upgrade."

F1 now heads to a circuit where Ferrari claimed one of its three wins in 2015 at the Hungaroring looking for a turnaround in form after a difficult two races at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

Zdroj: crash.net