Scuderia Ferrari has decided to change Charles Leclerc’s engine, according to Motorsport Italy, which informs that the Monegasque will get a five-place grid penalty for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), as the Maranello team’s technicians have approved the fitting of a new power unit on the F1-75 car of #16.
The introduction of the fresh 066/7 power unit has a strategic function: the working group led by Enrico Gualtieri made some changes on technical aspects that undermined the reliability of the Ferrari power unit and, with the full consent of the FIA, changes were made that introduce new solutions (materials rather than a fix) that will be tested in view of 2023.
There is no doubt that with the introduction of the Superfast engine designed by Wolf Zimmermann, the Scuderia has taken a big step forward in terms of power, but in search of horsepower it has paid a price with reliability. It was a calculated risk as confirmed by team principal Mattia Binotto, aware that with the engine development freeze until the end of 2025 Formula 1 season there would provide no more opportunities to gain performance, while by regulation would allow them to make changes for reliability reasons.
Wolf Zimmermann has brought an innovative 6-cylinder with a new fuel system that allows the combustion chamber to ensure a combustion phase with very rapid ignition times. Ferrari, therefore, after two years of difficulties in which the engine of the Maranello team had been “deflated” following the secret agreement that was signed with the FIA for an irregularity never proven regarding the injection system, is back with a power unit that can rival the best competition.
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The repeated failures that blocked Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz heavily influenced the 2022 Formula 1 season, so in Maranello they chose a conservative way to avoid other retirements in the second part of the year, also reducing the potential of the engine.
The frequent replacements of the power unit components, to avoid reaching the breaking point of the weakest parts, have allowed the engineers to work on solutions that were not “buffer” ones but definitive long-term solutions, aiming to allow power units to have a life span of seven / eight races and therefore return to the expected targets for next year.
Charles Leclerc will make use of the PU6 which is an important test bench: Ferrari, in fact, will be able to seek full power again, also adapting the electronic strategies of the hybrid accordingly with a new more powerful mapping: according to rumors we should finally discover the value of the new ERS introduced on the Monegasque driver’s F1-75 at Spa-Francorchamps which, so far, has been useful for reducing the weight by saving of a couple of kilos, but has hidden the performance improvement due to limitations set by the Maranello technicians.
It will be up to Carlos Sainz to go and aim for pole position in Texas, while Charles in the last four GPs will attempt to defend second place in the drivers’ championship, given that his margin from Sergio Perez is only two points.
In Austin it is possible to overtake so it will be interesting to understand if the Scuderia will be able to challenge Red Bull at the Circuit of the Americas as they look to the end of the season with the hope of breaking Red Bull’s hegemony with a victory. In the United States, Scuderia Ferrari will also further evaluate the new floor specification introduced last time out at the Suzuka circuit, given that in Japan the rain had made it difficult to understand the data which had nevertheless seemed positive.
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