The testing session which Ferrari held at Fiorano served as a setting in for Carlos Sainz, as a new start for Charles Leclerc and as a good expecience for the Haas driver Mick Schumacher, but now Scuderia Ferrari looks to February with the hope that this 2021 can begin with positive signs regarding the changes made. The goal is to have a season that is not only a transition to the 2022 regulatory change, but also a year in which to try to get some positive results. On the subject, rumors travel in opposite directions, a hint that there is very little certainty about how the new season will go.
“The power unit has been redone, there is some concern about the exhausts, however it will not match the performance of the Mercedes engine. On the chassis side, there have been changes in the gearbox, and little else, given the fact that the regulations are strict. On the other hand, aerodynamics is free, but here the prospects are not promising. New engineers will arrive, at least a couple, but they will be operational only from 2022, in compliance with the clauses on the competition prohibition” – writes Italian journalist Leo Turrini, suggesting that hopes are not so high.
To recover a considerable loss of horsepower after the “agreement” with the FIA signed between 2019 and 2020, the Maranello team worked for a good part of last season. With a lighter turbine and several redesigned components, the bench tests have been promising according to Team Principal Mattoa Binotto. For GP Racing magazine, Maranello would be optimistic about the competitiveness of the new engine as it changed its mind about the freezing of power units after 2022. In the past, however, the Scuderia would not have been in favor of this rule precisely because it was aware of being late, while now the development would have led to different thoughts.
Other areas with tokens to spend are aerodynamics and rear suspension, whose performance, however, is also linked in this case to the recovery of power compared to the competition. All this to aspire to a modest seasonal goal for the caliber of Ferrari (more exactly the objective is third place in the constructors and more podium finishes) but certainly higher than what we saw in 2020.
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