Two years of purgatory after the agreement remained secret with the FIA, but this year Ferrari has returned to excel in one of the departments in which it has most distinguished itself throughout the history of Formula 1: the engine.
The 066/7, this is the acronym of the project then internally renamed “Superfast”, is one of the factors that brought Ferrari back to being able to play the victories during the 2022 Formula 1 season, but it was also a cross, not only a delight.
To the amazing performances he added – occasionally, but with a sinister frequency – a fragility that was reflected on several occasions in the first part of the Formula 1 season, hitting both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.
Both Ferrari drivers were forced to unmark the fourth thermal unit of the season, thus incurring penalties, even before reaching the middle of the 2022 calendar. Certainly not a good sign, also because Mattia Binotto, team principal of the Prancing Horse, he admitted that it will take months to make some adjustments.
Binotto, speaking to Motorsport.com, however, took stock of the situation by explaining why the Maranello technicians preferred to emphasize performance more, probably paying less attention to reliability. A question of freezing, which will affect above all the seasons to come.
“I don’t think we pushed too hard because pushing performance is never enough, but we certainly prioritized performance over reliability, admitted Binotto.
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal, Ferrari
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
“What does it mean: that we have probably reached the limit of time for homologation. Then we must remember that also on the power unit front there was a restriction on the number of hours that can be used on the test bench, and these restrictions have had a impact on our work “.
“When there were no limits, it was enough to increase the work on the test benches, both in terms of performance and reliability, but today, being constrained by hours, you are forced to make choices”.
After the last two failed seasons from a performance point of view, Ferrari was aware of having to recover precisely on that front against direct rivals, especially on Mercedes and Honda. This is why the engine department has dedicated most of its efforts to giving Leclerc and Sainz a powerful engine, which could already represent excellence this year and a certainty in the next ones, before the next regulation change.
“We pushed the limits of performance beyond what would have been a normal reliability plan, and this is because we knew it would be important to close the gap on the competition before the freeze for four seasons, knowing that reliability issues can always be resolved at a later time “.
“This is not to say that we arrived at the first race thinking we were completely unreliable, it wasn’t like that. In the winter tests, no problems emerged, but we knew we were not in an ideal situation.”
“In addition, the problems we had on the track that had not emerged in the bench simulations, I think are typical unexpected events of a new project, and we must take them into account, I am not entirely surprised by what happened”, concluded Binotto .
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