Like Mercedes, Ferrari has decided to use its second power unit in Baku as the Azerbaijani circuit is clearly one of the most demanding for engines with its straights and 24 seconds of the full gas main straight. It is clear that a fresh power unit always helps, especially in the hybrid charging phases.
As already written, the gap that the Italian Power Unit has as compared to the most performing one (Mercedes) increases in the race compared to the ‘only’ 15 HP in qualifying, where SF21, beyond the pole scored, proved to be superior than expectations. It is a question of consumption and the use of a thin wing was intended to minimize this ‘disadvantage’.
“There are obviously two cars ahead of us that are even stronger,” said Mattia Binotto, referring to Red Bull and Mercedes: “It was great to be in pole position both in Monaco and here in Baku, but I don’t think that reflects our overall performance.” – he explained.
In Baku the problems from the race, on the other hand, concerned a sub-optimal balance tuning, particularly on the hard compound. Unexpected for Ferrari, who suffered the most important problems on the softer compound. Also from here the early stop, to ‘get rid’ of the tyres as soon as possible; in retrospect a wrong choice for how the race went then.
For over 10 laps, Charles Leclerc had to manage a strong understeer due to the lack of front grip, this problem slowed him down in lap timing. Sure a higher aero incidence would have helped, but it defending against Mercedes and Red Bull would still have been very difficult.
Hamilton had similar problems but the body-generated downforce of the W12 is greater. Lewis until the error in the final stages of the event did a great race, managing to improve his performance thanks to a different aerodynamic set-up than his teammate Valtteri Bottas. However, there was no huge discrepancy between the two setups, no more than a tenth according to Mercedes simulations.
“Warming up the tires is really important. And if you can drive a little faster and put a little more energy into the tires, the car will also be faster and you will end up in a spiral of positive performance.” – said Mike Elliott. It was therefore more important that Bottas felt comfortable rather than having a car that could theoretically drive a tenth of a second faster. But even with those technical choices, the Finn did not find the right confidence, necessary to go fast on a track like that of Baku, a city circcuit but a very fast one.
Returning to Ferrari, in Maranello they are working to bring a more performing Power Unit 3, currently planned between Budapest, where Ferrari thinks it will be quite competitive, and the first GPs after the summer break.
There are some aspects of reliability that need to be improved both to unlock a further (small) increase in power – in particular on ERS (also in view of 2022) – and for operating temperatures that do not allow the use of an optimal engine cover configuration and much more efficient (in Baku it would have been very convenient), as Mercedes and Honda powered cars can do.
Baku and especially Monaco showed how strong Ferrari is in the low speed corners. Now it will be interesting to see how the SF21 performs on other tracks. Paul Ricard, from this point of view, is already a good test for the nature of the French circuit.
“We are making progress because we are finally learning more about the car and using it better than at the start of the season,” said Mattia Binotto.
It is important, however, to point out Ferrari’s excellent ‘in-season’ progress. A bit like Mercedes, Ferrari has focused more on understanding the car and less on bringing updates to the track.
Vice versa McLaren and Red Bull, although for the latter the advantages of the innovations brought to the track in the last rounds are starting to be seen more. Not yet for McLaren. But as for the Milton Keynes team, it can only be a matter of ‘tuning’ and understanding what’s new. Once understood, the potential can be fully extracted. In short, in the last few races it would seem that the learning curve of the MCL35M has flattened out but it may not be so and soon it will start to grow again.
For this Ferrari has some aerodynamic updates ready that will be brought to the track in the next rounds, between Paul Ricard and the Austrian events, aimed at improving efficiency of the SF21 at medium – high speeds.
Motoristically speaking, Honda and Ferrari seem to think in a way that is not too different from what little development allowed (only on reliability) this season.
Mattia Binotto’s team replaced the first PU quite soon, the Japanese will do so in France in search of offering more thrust ( The vibrations of the Honda power unit are limiting Red Bull ) in conjunction with the restrictions regarding the rear wing flexion of the RBR16B.
The fight with Mercedes will also take place on reliability.
Now for Ferrari the usual shifts between “old” PU on Friday and PU 2 on Saturday will begin and the race will extend the life of the latter compared to just 5 weekends (3200 km for Leclerc, 3600 km for Sainz) carried out by PU 1.
Taking into account that the Ferrari PU has a target of 6000 km , the first power unit will be used for another 8-9 Fridays of the season, the remainder by the PU2 while the PU3 will be used only between Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, important work is underway in Maranello on the 2022 power unit which is offering ‘encouraging’ signals. The architecture has been defined for just over a month: there will be innovations in the layout while keeping the turbocharger united.
The separation of turbine and compressor was also evaluated but no such important advantages were seen, especially in terms of ICE (endothermic) efficiency. As for the layout, more work is being done on ‘accessories’ that will influence dimensions and weight distribution, which are also very important in next year’s regulatory revolution.
We conclude by recalling that in the next season there will be a first step towards the transition to completely sustainable fuels.
The petrol (E10) that will be used in 2022 cars will in fact contain 10% (bio) ethanol. This is creating problems for all the engineers who have seen themselves ‘cut’ the power of the thermal part by about 5% with the same consumption. The value would also be higher were it not for the fact that ethanol has a higher octane number, prevents detonation and, more importantly, cools the charge.
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