New Scuderia Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has strongly denied claims that the Maranello team has managed to gain about 30bhp from its power unit thanks to the work done on the reliability aspect of the engine ahead of the 2023 Formula One season.
A development freeze was introduced for all Formula 1 power units in the start of the previous campaign, with the goal of reducing development cost and allowing teams to already start focusing on the new generation of power units which will be introduced in 2026. As a result, Formula 1 teams can only bring engine updates and changes to the hybrid systems that have a clear target of only improving reliability issues. Any performance update is strictly forbidden.
Ferrari faced several power unit reliability issues during the first half of the previous season, which according to former Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto forced the Italian side to limit the power of its engine in the second half of the 2022 Formula One championship in order to avoid any other technical failures.
According to several reports in the Italian media during the last few weeks, the solutions introduced by Ferrari have significantly improved the reliability and the engine and this should allow the Maranello team to use up to 30bhp more from their 066/7 power unit. However Frederic Vasseur has dismissed these rumours in a recent interview at Fiorano:
“Regarding the engine, the numbers, I don’t know where the numbers are coming from, but it’s just a joke that we made some step. It’s just about reliability.” – the French manager explained.
Scuderia Ferrari missed out on two potential race victories last season as a result of power unit failures, at the Circuit de Catalunya in the Spanish Grand Prix and at the Baku City Circuit in the Azerbaijan Grands Prix, after which the Italian side had to limit the engine power to prevent other similar issues.
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“I think the performance last year of the engine was not an issue at all. The issue was the reliability and the first target is to fix it. So far it looks okay but the reality of the track is a different aspect. I think that a couple of issues that the team suffered, and it’s not just true for Ferrari, but in terms of reliability are also coming from the track operation, bouncing and vibration. And I believe we’ll have a much better picture in Bahrain in a bit more than two weeks’ time.” – New Scuderia Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur concluded.
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