One of the question marks ahead of the French Grand Prix weekend concerns the situation of the Ferrari power units, especially regarding Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard left Austria rather embittered, seeing the possibility of completing the Ferrari one-two vanish just a few laps before the end of the Red Bull Ring race. His power unit in fact failed just moments before he could overtake the Red Bull RB18 of Max Verstappen.
In recent days there has been a lot of discussion regarding how long it took for the Austrian GP marshals to extinguish the fire, but also about the consequences of the fire that broke out in the rear of the Spaniard’s F1-75 car in Spielberg.
Ferrari to manage power unit on Friday, new engine on Saturday.
Since reliability problems have become more frequent, team principal Mattia Binotto himself stated that the management of the engines of the Maranello team would have been changed in terms of parameters, trying in some way to extend the life of the engines in the short term, with the aim of optimizing mileage. In fact, for a few weeks now, Ferrari has been using less horsepower during free practice sessions, even going so far as to turn down its power unit by at least 20 hp, precisely for less degradation, even those used today for Friday rotations.
The program will therefore not change much at Paul Ricard as both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will face a normal Friday, also focusing on aerodynamic tests given the introduction of the new floor – which appeared yesterday on Charles Leclerc’s car – continuing with the normal work of rotating the engines available in the current pool. According to a recent report from Formu1a.uno, Carlos Sainz will formally take a grid penalty on Saturday, before entering the parc fermé, by assembling the Power Unit n.4.
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The Spanish driver did not deny the possibility during his Thursday media sessions, stating at the press conference: “We are still evaluating. It will also depend on how we see the potential on the track, tire management, whether it will be easy to overtake. Lately Mercedes has been closer and therefore they too are part of our conversation when we think of strategies or pitstop for example” – A clear desire not to reveal the cards in advance by Scuderia Ferrari, also through the words of Carlos Sainz.
Obviously its is a penalty that strategically cannot surprise anyone, given the greater difficulty of recovering positions at the Hungaroring circuit, which will host the next round of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
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