In the 2021 Formula 1 season, Scuderia Ferrari regained a good part of the power lost the year before. Already at the beginning of the previous championship, with the revised internal combustion engine, the SF21 had almost 40 hp more than the SF1000.
The hybrid part remained the same. As you will remember, this was introduced later, in the Russian Grand Prix, on the car of Charles Leclerc. The new ERS included a new battery pack, control unit, high-voltage system and all the accessories associated with use.
Scuderia Ferrari was aware that is cannot get involved in the fight for race wins last season so team principal Mattia Binotto, spoke more openly even at that time – perhaps rightly – that the Italian side focused on the 2022 season. At the time he said more or less: “This is an update that we will carry with us as a base in 2022”.
In fact, as explained by Giuliano Duchessa for formu1a.uno, the use of the new hybrid on the SF21 could not be optimized to 100% to express its potential at the highest level as it is on the F1-75, even at the purely level of layout, dimensions and wiring. However, it had given a significant boost to performance which allowed Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to win the duel with McLaren for third place in the Formula 1 Constructor Standings (the new ERS was also useful for a better balance of the car in the finale part of the season)
According to formu1a.uno, Ferrari will use the same strategy this year especially now that it is clear every little development update could make a big difference in the fight with Red Bull for both titles. Let alone the evolution of a hybrid.
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The new ERS will notably have a new specification MGU-K and will be introduced later in the season, “as late as possible”. Partly because all the winter work was focused on the theram part, delaying the initial work, partly to develop it as long as possible. As is known, the deadline for the approval of these components is 1 September.
It is probably something that other manufacturers are also doing: use all the time available to develop more and better in view of the definitive freezing of these powerunits until the introduction – in 2026 – of the new engines that are beginning to be discussed more intensely.
