Absolute silence fell regarding the Ferrari power unit issue that knocked out on Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo on the third day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. The problem encountered by the C43 challenger during the race simulation on Saturday morning had led to several questions, given the fact that the single-seater from Hinwil was parked in a safe area by the Finnish driver without any visible smoke from the exhausts or turbo.
Obviously the power unit was immediately disassembled and replaced by another 066/7 which allowed the Swiss team to resume activity on the track in the afternoon, while the Ferrari power unit engineers began to analyze what could have happened, since the expectations of the technicians headed by Enrico Gualtieri were that they had reached a good level of reliability with the engines approved for the 2023 Formula 1 championship.
From the first information that has been leaked and reported by Motorsport Italy, it seems that the internal combustion engine has not broken and can be reused. Not in the actual GPs, but for example in tire development tests. And, then, it is legitimate to ask what actually caused the technical failure following a clanging noise that was heard during the live television footage.
It seems that the weak element is the connection between the MGU-K, the electric motor generator that transfers energy to the crankshaft. Ferrari adopts a complicated planetary gear system that has already given several headaches last year. It is a very complicated solution to develop which however allows power transmission without too many resistances.
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The problem encountered by Alfa Romeo means that Ferrari will have to review the broken element, but it will take some time: in the simulations on the bench it had never shown any problems but with the vibrations suffered by the car on tracks, things can be different. It will take some time to have the parts revised and corrected, in the meantime the Ferrari-powered cars will have to hope that the problem does not repeat itself over the weekend in Bahrain.
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