Let’s see what emerges from the statement released yesterday by the FIA on the agreement signed by surprise with Ferrari. It’s not so much the clean slate on the past, but the change of role that concerns the present and the future of the Scuderia in the relationship with the legislator. Mercedes and Red Bull have not liked it. Not at all…
The statement issued by the FIA late yesterday afternoon had the effect of a bomb. The leaders of the teams had already left the Barcelona paddock when the news spread. The FIA has declared closed the “war” on the Ferrari engine that so much controversy has unleashed especially at the end of last year. A very confidential agreement, whose contents will remain secret outside the parties, was signed after the International Federation sanctioned the closure of the investigation into the Prancing Horse power unit. Evildoers claim that the clean-up has served to cover up a controversial and questionable phase of last year.
They wanted to draw a line on the past to build a new relationship from scratch, based on cooperation between the parties: “The FIA and Scuderia Ferrari have agreed on a series of technical commitments – it was written in the statement – that will improve the monitoring of all power units in the upcoming championships, as well as support the Federation in other regulatory aspects in Formula 1 and in its research activities on the reduction of carbon emissions and the introduction of sustainable fuels”.
And those who think badly immediately hinted that it happened like when a government asks a hacker for help to prevent its computer systems from being hacked. Motorsport Italy does not share this vision, because the Scuderia will be at the forefront in the study of the F1 engine of 2025 that could become the laboratory for the Automotive in the transition phase that the automotive world will have to endure while waiting for an electric network able to meet the green mobility with zero emissions.
There is also the idea of relaunching diesel, coming out of the demonization that was made by the case that had hit VW. The F1, could look to a power unit with a greater prevalence of the hybrid and it is not certain that alternative fuels useful to reduce emissions can be studied. But the FIA-Ferrari agreement that has made Mercedes and Red Bull and not only that, opens an important window also on the present. Mattia Binotto has not hesitated to “postpone” the performance of the SF1000 (“I would give a grade less than 6”) to lash out the team just now that together with Louis Camilleri won a political game that will have a great weight on the 2020 season.
For the first time Ferrari adopted on the engine the same tactic that James Allison played for the approval of the DAS. The Prancing Horse technicians wrote a series of letters to Nicholas Tombazis about the use of the power unit and the intercooler in which all doubts regarding the interpretation of the grey areas of the regulations were clarified and all the authorizations were obtained to start a season without the continuous dance of controversy that distinguished the last World Championship.
This is not the first point scored by the Camilleri-Binotto duo, as last year the Cavallino team had reached an economic agreement with FOM for the renewal of the 2021-25 Concordia Pact, securing 38% of fixed premiums. Having found the square with Liberty, it was also necessary to do so with the FIA. The Scuderia, therefore, intends to confirm its motoring supremacy despite the Federation has intensified its controls with the introduction of a second flow meter to check instantaneous petrol consumption in real time.
And we wouldn’t be surprised at all if the power unit that was mounted on the SF1000 in the Barcelona tests was just an ’embryonic’ form of the 065 that will perhaps be seen later. Of course you can’t expect “…one second of engine” as Toto Wolff provocatively said, after Brackley’s technicians pointed out the low top speeds of the Rossa with GPS measurements, but the fans of the Cavallino can hope for a significant reduction in the gap between the SF1000 and the silver arrow. Mattia Binotto knows he has an ace in his hand and has seen how Mercedes struggles to hold the game in the delicate field of the power unit (5 engines broken in his test sessions), so he pushes the Maranello technicians to evolve the Rossa quickly.
The SF1000 wasn’t born badly because it is already better than the SF90, but perhaps David Sanchez, head of aerodynamics, last year had exaggerated in search of speed at the speed trap, while now he has aimed too much in the cornering, finding himself with an exaggerated resistance to advancement that creates a sort of “wall” on the straight. The increased engine power will partly reduce the negative effects, but Ferrari immediately launched the project of a SF1000 B that could debut in the first European race with a more aggressive front end, while maintaining the base of the current body.
If things go as they hope at Maranello it won’t be a year of transition at all with the Scuderia’s technicians voted for the 2021 project. Quite the opposite. And the nervousness of Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, when they understood the real value of the FIA-Ferrari agreement, is more than ever justified. But the Federation, which last year never took a clear position on the issue of engines, already put a stop to certain controversy.
This time it will be up to Helmut Marko or Max Verstappen to demonstrate if there is something that is not legal on the Ferrari car. And now that the shopping list has changed, it will not be easy to know all the ingredients of the new recipe!
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