The Ferrari SF21 compared to the SF-1000 is definitely a more competitive car and the rankings prove it. After five races, the Maranello team has 78 points in the constructors’ standings and is fourth just two points behind McLaren, which compared to 2020 can again count on the Mercedes power unit from this year, abandoned after 2014 and used again after the two three-year-periods: with Honda from 2015 to 2017 and Renault from 2018 to 2020.
The Ferrari engine last year left nothing to be desired and was one of the areas in which Maranello worked hard to find some improvement in view of 2022, when Formula 1 will change its appearance with the return of the ground effect and at the same time when engines will be frozen until 2024 pending the new cycle at the power unit level that will be inaugurated in 2025. According to the German media (Auto Motor und Sport), the GPS data analysis carried out by Mercedes technicians show that Ferrari it has the fastest car in low speed corners and that the difference in power level between the Maranello engine and those of Mercedes and Honda is around twenty horsepower.
This gap is due to the endothermic combustion part, while from an electrical point of view the Ferrari power unit could already be the reference of the category at this moment. The engine, in fact, goes into ‘recharge’ mode later than the Honda, Mercedes and Renault ones. Ferrari have caught up with Renault now, kept the gap to Honda and reduced the gap to Mercedes. Experts estimate Ferrari’s deficit in the combustion engine at 15 to 20 hp. On the other hand, Ferrari is already ahead in terms of electric drive
The only two development tokens available between 2020 and 2021 seemed to leave very little room for maneuver for the teams, but Ferrari spent them wisely. Acting on the rear has in fact given many advantages: “A narrower rear has brought us many more advantages than a narrow nose “, the words of a Ferrari engineer reported by the German magazine. Thanks to the new gearbox structure it was possible to raise the rear axle like Mercedes and Red Bull by improving the flow of air reaching the diffuser. The result is more stability and aerodynamic efficiency, as the SF21 in fact produces much less ‘dirty’ aerodynamic downforce than the SF-1000. Being the only top team to have a wide nose has not been such a detrimental element for the Red team.
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