Mattia Binotto has revealed that despite only next year remaining in the current Formula 1 era, Ferrari are likely to build an all-new power unit for 2021 which they hope will wrench them out of the doldrums.
Ferrari’s woes since the ‘castration’ of their engines, late last year, are well documented and now, as a solution, the team has an all-new power unit package on the cards for next season.
Speaking during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend, Binotto told reporters, “We don’t have the best engine currently, that’s right. I think that next year we may have a completely new power unit, that’s per regulations.
“As Ferrari, we have invested a lot in the development of the power unit for 2021, furthermore for 2022. It’s true the engine is currently running on the dyno. I think that the feedback in terms of performance and reliability is very promising.
“We’ve got as the question, dyno limitation, that’s down to us somehow to be efficient in the way we’re planning all the tests with the dyno, maybe be creative in the way we are approaching the testing but I think that even if we have got some limitations on dyno operations there’s still room for improvement. From what I can see today at the dyno, somewhat happy with the results.”
This year the sport’s most famous team are enduring one of their worst spells in F1, with Charles Leclerc going beyond the call of duty to scrape half-decent results with the awkward Ferrari SF1000 while soon to depart Sebastian Vettel is out at sea with the package at his disposal.
So bad has the four-time F1 world champion been this season his pitiful form has triggered conspiracy theories, some have asked if the Scuderia are playing silly-buggers with the German in his final days at Maranello. In other words, and without beating about the bush, sabotaging Seb.
Highly unlikely but worth the question to the Italian team boss, “I don’t think there’s a key difference. I think in the end it’s very small differences. We aren’t talking about a big number, it’s always a sum of hundredths per corner, per braking.
“It’s very little and it’s a matter of feeling, it’s a matter of feeling the grip, it’s a matter of extracting the potential. It’s our task and it’s our duty to help him, to support him in the ways he can deliver better and that’s it.
“Looking at the data there are no big differences, that’s the point,” insisted Binotto.