Ferrari, just like its two customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas, was severely affected by power unit technical failures during the 2022 Formula One championship, up to the point of having to limit the engine power in the second part of the year to avoid even more problems.
Given the current regulations and the ongoing power unit development freeze, suppliers are only permitted to work on updates and changes for reliability reasons, despite the fact that several media outlets reported that the Maranello team was able to find some additional gains also in terms of performance with the 2023 engine.
Such a performance increase would clearly be legal in case the reason for the extra power would be reliability and the fact that the engine could now be run consistently at higher limits than last season.
Romanian-American engineer and current Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has pointed out that Renault chose to take a clear direction last year, focusing and pushing reliability limits with the goal of looking for performance, while being aware that problems could be fixed through updates even at a later point.
After the official SF-23 car launch, Ferrari Head of Power Unit Area Enrico Gualtieri confirmed that only track running will be able to give a clear verdict regarding how well the Maranello team fixed the issues which he describes as Ferrari’s Achilles heel in the 2022 Formula 1 campaign:
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“Preparation work for the new season is usually one of the busiest times of the year And this winter was no exception,” Enrico Gualtieri confirmed in a recent video posted by the Italian side – “Actually PUs have been frozen since last year, including fluids, so oil and fuel. And the only modifications allowed are those related to reliability. In fact, reliability was our Achilles heel last season. And so we worked over the winter to solve our main problems to try and reach the desired level of reliability. That was our aim for 2023. And our work this winter was based on this.” – he added.
Enrico Gualtieri pointed out that the Maranello team worked hard on evaluating both the assembly processes as well as the design of the elements believed to have caused the technical failures:
“We worked mainly on those areas that gave us the most trouble last season. So we focused on the internal combustion engine and the electric motors. However, at the same time, we tried to capitalise on the experience gained on track last season. And so we looked at all the feedback and signs of weakness from the PU components were used. Clearly, this involves various design areas of some components. But at the same time, we also revised when necessary our assembly procedures. The work involved all the PU personnel as well as our colleagues in the supply chain and our suppliers.” – the Ferrari Head of Power Unit Area continued.
Asked to provide further details about Ferrari’s winter programme for the SF-23 ahead of the 2023 F1 season, Enrico Gualtieri added:
“We worked on all areas trying to understand the root causes of the problems we encountered on track and used all our available tools to try and solve them. In fact, the work involved all areas from design to experimentation, including the assembly process, to try and test new solutions in a very short space of time. We also made the most of the experience gained in the second half of last season and then further evolved some of the components where necessary. The work never ends, based on continuous improvement of the components to try and reach the required level of reliability. We’ve had some positive feedback on the test bench on some of the changes we’ve introduced. But as usual, the track will tell us if we’ve done a good job.” – he concluded.
New Scuderia Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur agreed with Enrico Gualtieri’s explanation regarding the fact that the team has to wait for the pre-season testing session and the first races to be able to give an overall verdict on the power unit reliability”:
“I think the priority for everybody is reliability. Because when you are at this stage of the season, if you don’t have the reliability, you are not able to do the three days, and then you start on the wrong foot. We did the mileage that we have to do on the dyno, we are all optimistic, but only Bahrain will tell us where we are in terms of reliability and performance. So far, I would say that it’s all OK.” – the Frenchman added.
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