Scuderia Ferrari is confident the 25bhp engine deficit which was clear last year as compared to Formula 1 rivals Mercedes and Honda has been slashed this winter, and the Maranello team even hopes there is a chance it could actually be ahead in the 2022 Formula One season.
The Italian side has been tipped for a strong start to the new F1 championship, as a result of the overall great impression and performance during the six-day testing period which took place at the Circuit de Catalunya and Bahran. There is a high level of confidence about the Ferrari F1-75 chassis, as team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed team’s evaluations of the recent testing sessions provided some encouraging data and feedback on its power unit performance as well.
Despite the fact that a first real verdict will only be seen in the qualifying session for the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, with teams always hiding their true potential at this stage of the year, Mattia Binotto admitted that his team’s feedback from testing data was positive.
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Asked about the new power unit for the 2022 season, the Ferrari boss explained:
“Knowing that from this year the engines will be frozen for the next four seasons, it was obviously important to start with a power unit that had no performance gap to the competition. At the end of last season we had a gap of 20-25 horsepower, so the first goal was to cancel this margin. At the moment we are not yet able to understand what the values on track are, as the measurements that we take using the GPS system have a certain accuracy, but they are not super precise. They are also influenced by the weight of the car, and without this data the estimate is difficult. When we are at a race weekend, there are moments, like in qualifying and at the start of the race, where we know the weight of the opponents’ cars. But during the tests, this data is obviously not available. Then, there is also the slipstream effect, so you have to find laps without external influences. We usually wait three to four races to compile a statistic, because the more data that is available, the more a correct average emerges. In the tests, from the little we saw, we conducted an exercise and according to this initial analysis, we are at the level of the others. We are certainly not behind them, and perhaps we have a little more. But that is not a firm conclusion. We can only be satisfied for now in having confirmed the progress seen on the test bench.” – the Ferrari boss said, as reported by the Italian media.
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