The news might seem like a surprise at the end of the year, but in Formula 1 the twists on a technical level do not exist, because the performance improvements are only the result of hard work. At the power unit level, the manufacturers decided that the big change for 2022 would be the introduction of E10 fuel on ground-effect single-seaters, that is, a blend with 90% fossil fuels and 10% ethanol.
The introduction of ethanol forced the engineers to redesign the combustion chambers of the 6 cylinders and the loss of power estimated by Mattia Binotto in about twenty horsepower is the research field in which all the manufacturers (Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda and Renault) are working to close a gap that, of course, has affected everyone in much the same way.
From the little news filtering from Ferrari, it would appear that the 2022 engine, ready to be homologated and frozen until 2025, would have brilliantly exceeded the power values of the 065/6 that concluded the 2021 championship, both for the design qualities of the Superfast unit developed by engineer Wolf Zimmermann, under the technical direction of Enrico Gualtieri, and for the chemical qualities of the latest fuel developed by Shell.
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The Dutch oil company since last February, when the multi-year agreement that binds it to the Maranello team was renewed, was elevated to an “innovation partner”, a role that is no longer just that of sponsor and supplier of fuel and lubricants, but has also assumed a fundamental role in the analysis and study of ecological fuels for present and future F1.
The first example of this close collaboration is the rapid response with which the research center entrusted with the study of the E10 fuel for Ferrari was able to overcome the 20 horsepower handicap estimated by Mattia Binotto for the Superfast engine.
In short, there was not only work on the new engine in an attempt to bridge the power gap from Mercedes and Honda, but the challenge has expanded to every field that can contribute to performance. And the ability of the F1 world is such as to be able to overcome any difficulty or problem with research and innovation.
At the test benches of the Racing Department they can finally breathe an air of confidence: the results obtained are even higher than those defined in the initial project. The unquestionable leap in quality, however, will have to be measured with the work that the opponents have done, so the first answers on the actual competitiveness of the red car must be expected from the winter tests …
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