Ferrari has given the strongest indication yet of how far they have come in addressing their greatest weakness ahead of the 2021 F1 season.
The team dropped to sixth place in the championship last year. The SF1000 was clearly at a disadvantage on the straights, as were the cars of the customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas, which indicates a performance deficit in the Ferrari engine.
Ferrari reached a private settlement with the FIA on the eve of last season after scrutinizing the engine concept used in 2019. This led to speculation that the team’s compliance with the rules was in doubt, but neither they nor the FIA disclosed the terms of the settlement.
The team has produced a new unit for 2021. Sporting director Laurent Mekies said it performed well on its dynamometer before testing started and the pre-season race in Bahrain showed it was working as expected.
“The engine is better, there is no doubt about it,” he said. “We don’t have to get out on the track to know. Just like we have Dynos, we know the engine has taken a big step forward.
“Is that enough? It depends on how far the other guys get in the meantime. We can’t estimate that apart from our own experience in development [power units]. I think it will take a race or two to gauge where everyone is. “
Mekies said the team won’t draw any conclusions about how competitive they could be based on their testing performance.
“We are in the phase of making sure that we have what we should have on the track. We try not to be distracted by our surroundings.
“We have to make sure that what was in the factory is delivered. This applies to the engine, it applies to the aero, it applies to the vehicle suspension [et cetera]. ”
On the third day of the test, Mekies said there were “no open questions” that had interrupted their run. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t a number of steps to be followed in all areas,” he added.
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F1 season 2021
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