Ferrari discussed Mercedes engine ‘trick’ with Red Bull. Ferrari discussed Mercedes engine ‘trick’ with Red Bull.

Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto admitted that he and Red Bull boss Christian Horner met in order to discuss about the potential illegality of Mercedes’ current engine. According to recent rumours in the media, the two teams were analyzing the possibility of launching a protest against Mercedes in order for the FIA to investigate how they use a ‘trick’ on their plenum, that sends air around an engine.

Ferrari and Red Bull feel temperature sensors are placed on the W12 in such a way that they do not contravene technical regulations surrounding air temperature coming from a power unit, but believe Mercedes are have managed to find some important gains by cycling cooler air through the plenum. For the moment Ferrari has not officially sent a protest regarding this perceived breaking of the rules.

“No, we haven’t” – Mattia Binotto confirmed, as reported by Motorsport Italy this week – “Even though, like all teams, all constructors, we always try to understand what our opponents are doing – we analyse the images and look at the GPS data. We had some doubts and we discussed it with Red Bull. I personally talked to Christian Horner about it, but we didn’t submit any questions for clarification to the FIA.” – he explained.

“Without getting to the subject of the Mercedes engine, I would prefer to touch on other topics that are well known – the flexible wings, rather than the management of tyre pressures, which required technical directives. The FIA measures came about because there were those who misinterpreted the principles of the regulations. And this is no different to what had happened in 2019. Why are there differences in attitude? Maybe then we were too exposed in the media and we suffered an attack from our competitors, but that is now water under the bridge. I think to get to the tones used in 2019 is still wrong. However, I think it is important to stress that what happened then is nothing different from what is happening now and has always happened in Formula 1.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.