Motorsport engineer Gunther Steiner, the current team principal of the Haas Formula One Team, feels Ferrari now has the best power unit on the grid after all three of its teams were able to make it through to Q3 at the Bahrain International circuit on Saturday.
Scuderia Ferrari is on the back of two difficult years after its power unit performance took a big hit back in 2020, which of course also affected its customer partners Haas and Alfa Romeo, who were on the back foot as compared to their dierct opponents.
Ferrari showed the first signs of improvement last year and had a late-season boost as a result of an updated hybrid system which was intended for 2022, but was introduced by Ferrari in the final part of 2021 for testing purposes, giving it confidence heading into the 2022 Formula 1 championship.
The qualifying session in Sakhir showed the Maranello team was able to continue its improvements and made another step forward with the power unit as Charles Leclerc secured pole position behind the wheel of the F1-75 car, while teammate Carlos Sainz finished third, just behind Max Verstappen. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas will begin the Bahrain Grand Prix from an impressive P6, ahead of Haas driver Kevin Magnussen in seventh.
According to some data, the Italian side’s new engine could provide an advantage of about two or three tenths of a second per lap over the rest of the field. The step forward made Haas Formula 1 Team Principal Gunther Steiner state after qualifying that Ferrari now has the best engine in Formula 1.
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“I think the Ferrari engine is now the best engine,” Gunther Steiner said – “I honestly think that, and that gives a lot of credit to them because they were in the same position as us. They had to take a lot of s**t from people about it. And they just got back, did their homework and came back with something very good.” – he added.
Valtteri Bottas will line up on the third row for his first race with Alfa Romeo, and felt there were no longer “any more big differences between any of the engine manufacturers”, while AlphaTauri French driver Pierre Gasly managed to reach Q3, but noted “the Ferrari-powered cars are really fast”, meaning his team has “got some work to do if we want to get to the top of the midfield”.
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