The FIA says it is satisfied Ferrari’s F1 power unit complies with the rules but confirmed it will add further systems to monitor it more closely from the next race. Race director Charlie Whiting said the team proved to the FIA their power unit is compliant after monitoring it during practice on Thursday in Monaco. However the method used to check it was complicated and the FIA wants a simpler system in place for the Canadian Grand Prix.
“Their duty is to satisfy us that the car complies. But they were finding it hard to satisfy us. By the time we got to here, looking at data [and] software changes that had been implemented, it [became] clearer exactly where we were and after the first day of running we were then able to say we’re happy and we understand it now.” – race director Charlie Whiting said, as reported by the British media.
Ferrari demonstrated the legality of its design “via a complex routine” Whiting explained. “But we don’t want to have to go through that all the time in order to make sure so we would rather additional measurements were made.” The FIA will add “additional monitoring for Canada”, he said, and further sensors could be added to improve monitoring next year. “But what we’ll have for Canada will be a better system which will help us get things done much quicker than we had to. It’s taken us a couple of races to get to the bottom of it.”
The dispute over the legality of Ferrari’s power unit concerns the design of its battery. The new monitoring system will allow the FIA to check “exactly what the difference between the two halves of the battery are,” said Whiting – “That’s the crux of the matter because other systems treat their battery as one. [With] Ferrari, it’s one battery but they treat it as two.”
The FIA began looking into Ferrari’s battery after a query was raised by Mercedes’ technical director James Allison, following the arrival of engine designer Lorenzo Sassi who joined the team from Ferrari earlier this year. Allison approached Whiting about the Ferrari design before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix: “It was wrong to say he was a whistleblower or something like that. He just, as many engineers do, come up to us and said ‘this guy started working for us, he tells us this team might be doing that’.”
Whiting said it is “routine” for engineers to make such enquiries, “especially when they’ve had staff members come from another team. Don’t forget Lorenzo, his information is at least eight months old, which in Formula One terms I think is quite old,” Whiting added. Mercedes’ executive director Toto Wolff said it was “completely normal modus operandi that teams enquire with the FIA about certain legality topics.”
“The FIA has made a public statement – Jean and Charlie – about the situation and as they are the governing body, they are perfectly entitled to do so,” Wolff added – “No judgement has been made on anything. No protest has been launched. No enquiry has been done. Just the press statement from the FIA. And we trust them.”
However Whiting said it was “completely incorrect to say nothing was investigated” by the FIA. He also insisted Ferrari had co-operated with the FIA’s enquiry. “They’ve been very helpful the whole way,” he said – “It’s just been very detailed and painstaking work to try and get to the bottom of exactly how their system works and hence give us the comfort that we need.”
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