Scuderia Ferrari has revealed plans to bring a ‘significant’ Formula 1 engine upgrade in the second half of the 2021 F1 season when the Maranello team will introduces its final power unit components of the campaign.
Despite the fact that there are homologation limits in place for engine manufacturers, due to which Ferrari is restricted to just one update from last year, it has emerged that the Italian side has so far not unleashed all the changes it wanted to make with its 2021 power unit.
While other car makers introduced all their new components at the start of the year and must now stick to that same spec, Ferrari has instead been running some parts that are the same as the ones from the 2020 design.
Having run only some upgraded parts in its much-improved 2021 engine, it is therefore allowed to introduce newly designed elements when it brings in its final power unit of the campaign.
While the timing of the introduction of the new components is not yet certain, Scuderia Ferrari team principal Binotto has admitted that it will not happen before the Italian Grand Prix in September.
That means that the new power unit that Charles Leclerc will have to run from the Belgian GP, as the result of his Hungarian GP crash, will be to the current spec.
Speaking about the engine upgrade plan, Mattia Binotto said: “We will bring power unit developments. Just to clarify what the regulations are in 2021: you may have a brand new power unit in 2021. It means that you may bring an update in all the components of the power unit, whatever it is ICE, turbo, MGU-H, batteries, MGU-K, etc. But what we did at the start of the season, we didn’t complete the entire power unit. So there are still components which are the ones of last year. And we will bring an evolution of those ones. So, I think, that will be for us a significant step for the end of the season.” – he explained.
Given the fact that the new engine is not coming until after the ItalianGrandPrix, Scuderia Ferrari is expecting to have a difficult time at the power-dependent tracks in Spa and Monza.
Looking ahead to the prospects after the summer break, starting with the Belgian GP at Spa, Mattia Binotto added: “It will be a difficult race for us, because we are seven tenths short of the best and most of these tenths, at least 60 per cent, comes from the engine. We lack this compared to the best and therefore we consider ourselves to be behind Mercedes and Honda to date. On a track like Belgium, if you look at our simulations, it’s a track where the engine matters a lot and on a qualifying lap I think the difference will be significant.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
