“This year’s Ferrari engine is a bomb”

Ferrari He has a lot of homework to do for 2023 if he wants to fight for the title in the F1 season that is about to start. He focused on solving his worst tire failure on perfecting his car concept, but at the same time, the engine department had one of the most important and important jobs: it had to improve the reliability of the engine. And before the season begins, optimism is high. if only a while ago Günther Steiner, head of Haas, client team of the Ferrari engine, which ensured that the former head of Ferrari, Mattia Binotto, told him that “the machine of 2023 will be the bomb.” Now, less than a week before the start of F1 pre-season testing (February 23-25), MD received a similar statement from a source close to the team: “The engine that Ferrari built for this year is a bomb”. This refers to the performance that the Italian propellant can have, which last year could not be used to the maximum due to its fragility.

Last year, during tests, MD had already warned that Ferrari’s main concern was possible engine damage. They were happy with the car and sources consulted by this newspaper only pointed to that concern. Both things were confirmed: the car was very fast, dominant from the start. But the engine setbacks came.

The explanation is simple. In fact, this is a foreseeable scenario. Last year the FIA ​​forced a freeze on engines until the new engines of 2026. In other words, they cannot be improved. This can only be done with the express permission of the FIA, after providing documents and proof that the engine suffers from reliability problems.

Knowing this, teams like Ferrari, which started with a disadvantage in terms of engine performance in relation to Mercedes or Red Bull, put all the meat on the grill and prioritize the search for performance and horsepower rather than reliability. To improve the durability of the propellant will take time, but to get direct power there is a clear deadline. Either it was done before, or it can no longer be achieved.

It is therefore foreseeable that when looking for piecework horses, the Ferrari engine may suffer bigger problems than in another year. And it happened, something that prevented them from squeezing it and using more conservative maps during the course. This is part of the more than calculated risk that could set them back a year if the power unit fails, but could be very beneficial for future courses when they find reliability lacking.

Still under the direction of Mattia Binotto, an expert mechanical specialist, Ferrari worked in the second part of last season to improve the reliability of the engine, something that was seen with the arrival of a new electric part in the last part of the course which has to mark the way to this new engine of 2023.

Satisfaction with the difficulty of the machine

During the winter, Gestione Sportiva’s engine department continued its massive workup to this point, the run-up to the beginning of a pre-season that the team faces with great optimism.

“He works too much. This car will win races, for sure”another source told this newspaper on the day of presentation of Ferrari, in Fiorano, with a smile. And in the event, regardless of design changes, the team’s optimism related to engine reliability is notable. “I hope this will allow us to continue”said leclerc. “The team did a great job on the engine,” said new Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseurhighlighting the team’s problems last year with the power unit and the effort made by the engine department to resolve any setbacks.

Ferrari needs, among other things, higher top speed on the straight, something achieved with a larger engine and less air resistance. They worked both ways. The step forward that Red Bull has made with its new car is unknown and the first hints will be seen in the pre-season tests, before the real fire starts in the first round of Bahrain. What is clear is that if the improvement in Ferrari’s engine reliability is as much as believed, it will allow the engine to squeeze more with more aggressive maps., indirectly finding more horses than last year. This will unlock power that was not available last year. A “bomb” that will try to blow up Red Bull’s dominance.