Source in Maranello says engine costs Ferrari half a second per lap – AMuS report. AMuS report.

Scuderia Ferrari finished tenth and eleventh in Spielberg’s Q2 round. The Italian side expected difficulties, but not as much as to finish in the middle of the field. Sebastian Vettel even failed to reach Q3, while Ferrari’s customer teams also looked bad. The biggest problem is the engine, according to German automobile magazine ‘Auto Motor und Sport’.

After the testing sessions in Barcelona, ​​Ferrari was rated as the third force behind Mercedes and Red Bull but in fact, the Maranello team landed roughly in the middle of the field. Racing Point, McLaren and Renault are suddenly opponents at eye level.

The second qualifying round at the opening Grand Prix in Spielberg spoke for itself. Charles Leclerc tenth, Sebastian Vettel eleventh. For Ferrari, the second round of qualifying was a tremendous game. The Alpha Tauri were within two tenths of a second. Sebastian Vettel was 0.165 seconds short of his teammate. That was annoying because the ex-world champion was still ahead of Charles Leclerc on Friday. Vettel mentioned problems with the rear axle: “I couldn’t throw the car into the corners with so much confidence.”

And he also practiced a bit of self-criticism: “My lap was not ideal either.” The rising temperatures have apparently caught Vettel on the wrong foot. “The car didn’t feel as good as it did on Friday.”

Charles Leclerc rose to 7th place in Q3. Charles, who last year took pole position in Austria, was lucky with the timing of his last flying lap. It came through the middle sector before Valtteri Bottas’s incident. Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo had to cancel their last attempt because of yellow flags.

With a time of 1.03.923 minutes, Charles just broke the 1.04 limit. Last year, the Monegasque driver was still in pole position with 1.03.003 minutes. Ferrari has therefore lost 0.920 seconds.

Engine costs half a second
That raises questions. Mainly because the same phenomenon was observed with the Ferrari customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas. Alfa Romeo lost 1.119 seconds to last year’s practice time, Haas still 0.619 seconds.

Last year, the Ferrari flew 11 km / h faster over the straights of the Red Bull Ring. So the conclusion suggests that the engine plays a crucial role in the Ferrari disaster. From the environment in Maranello you can hear that the engine costs them half a second per lap, ‘Auto Motor und Sport’ reports.