It's always the FIA's fault, but we all know that's not the case. The proposal to maintain the four power units in the 2024 world championship was not passed in the F1 Commission, although the calendar is extended this year to 24 Grands Prix, two more than last championship. Especially since last season there was an exemption to use four units for 22 races, since six Sprint Races had been introduced.
It is true that the regulation written three years ago provided that only three engines would be used, but it is equally true that the objective, with the power units “frozen” in development, was to limit costs to free up resources for research into 2026 engines , so, having achieved the reliability to cover the year with four six-cylinder engines, it was better to maintain a status quo that would have made everyone's work easier.
According to rumours, however, it was Honda and Mercedes who chose to reduce the available units to three, evidently in the awareness of putting Ferrari and Renault in difficulty in terms of reliability. The 066/10 edited by Enrico Gualtieri, especially after a different use of the hybrid system from mid-season onwards, has proven to be a competitive and efficient engine. The Cavallino technicians, working hard, also managed to limit the loss of power at the end of their life which had characterized certain PUs in recent years.
Photo by: Franco Nugnes
Enrico Gualtieri, head of Ferrari's engine engineers, with Roberto Boccafogli, head of communications for the Scuderia
The tactical game played by the Japanese and Stella was to change the cards on the table, extending the existence of the engines to 8 GPs, an interval never reached in the history of F1, hoping to put in difficulty those, like Ferrari, who had a duration of the PUs of 6 thousand kilometers is programmed, while in 2024 it will have to reach at least 7.5 thousand kilometres.
In the paddock there are those who believe that it is a move also designed to slow down the development of the Prancing Horse's 2026 engine, which seems to have been born well according to the first bench tests, but the effect is that everyone will have to deal with different reliability data. But if the objective was to break the balance, it will be interesting to see the strategies that each manufacturer will adopt to face the 2024 season.
The life that each n.1 engine will be able to achieve will be fundamental: it is conceivable that the first unit will be used in the first 5 weekends, and then become the engine to be used only in free practice with decidedly less extreme mappings to extend its life . At that point it will be clear how the season could go, given that the engines are identical to those of 2023.
Will the move attempted by Honda and Mercedes have any effects? It remains to be seen, because it is our feeling that Ferrari wants to plan the 2024 championship with four engines, just like last year, preferring to pay a grid penalty to complete the poker, rather than run the risk of breaking a PU in the race, especially since there are tracks that allow more than others the possibility of building comebacks.
The idea, in fact, is not to put the 066/10 back on the bench, occupying cells destined for the 2026 engine to find the reliability values necessary to cover the 7.5 thousand kilometres, but it is less expensive to define a championship with four PUs to right away. The chess game with the other manufacturers has already begun. Will the one who made the first move win, or will there be those who will be forced to revise their warlike plans along the way?
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