Ferrari confident SF21 is more efficient than last year’s SF1000 car. The new engine should be competitive.

The controversial and mysterious loss of speed suffered by Ferrari in the 2020 Formula 1 season is no longer a problem for Mattia Binotto: according to the team principal, the new engine will be competitive.

One still wonders about the engine issue when talking about Ferrari: did the Maranello team cheat or not? The argument still holds sway, even if, with the new season upon us, everyone’s attention is shifting to 2021. A slow Ferrari, with a car like the SF1000 is the last thing Formula 1 needs in an era dominated by Mercedes, whose hegemony should also be challenged by Ferrari and not just by Red Bull. Mattia Binotto is convinced that the new Ferrari engine will allow the Red cars to compete with rivals.

In 2020 Mercedes only had Red Bull as a potential opponent, given the lack of performance from Ferrari with the SF1000, a car which did not allow Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel to compete for wins and in most races not even for podiums. But, according to Mattia Binotto, Charles Leclerc and his new teammate Carlos Sainz will no longer have to worry about the power deficit.

“I think that last year the main issue was the speed on the straight lines. Not only the power but both power and drag.” – Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto explained a few days ago – “We’ve worked a lot both on the power unit and the car aerodynamics to reduce the drag of the car. And based on our simulations today, based on what we can see in terms of power output from the dynos and the drag of the car from the wind tunnel, I think that we’ve recovered quite a lot of speed on the straight lines. So I’m expecting the speed not to be such an issue as it was.”

“We hope to be competitive but we will know it only when being in Bahrain. I think it’s always relative to what the others are doing. But we believe our car is certainly more efficient compared to the one we had last year, and when I am saying efficient it is again from the aero point of view and the power unit point of view.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.

The SF21 will be unveiled during the official launch on March 10, a couple of days before the three days of pre-season testing session that will take place in Bahrain. This will be the only testing session scheduled ahead of the first Grand Prix of 2021, that will be hosted by the Sakhir circuit.