General
Wolff: "Feeling that Ferrari currently has the strongest engine"
- GPblog.com
Ferrari has performed excellently on the first two test days. The racing team from Maranello seems to have made good progress last winter and the competition sees that as well. Especially when it comes to the engine the Italians have reportedly done a great job.
"We have the feeling that Ferrari has the strongest engine at the moment," says Toto Wolff on behalf of Mercedes in conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport. Of course we have only had two test days and a lot can still change, but the fact is that Ferrari has made a solid start to the new season.
Ferrari must catch up
According to sources from the aforementioned medium, Ferrari has put an enormous amount of time into the 2022 engine and has also taken risks. The reason is that from this season onwards the engine freeze takes effect and from then on no 'performance' updates may be made. Mattia Binotto 's team had to start hooking up this year, otherwise they will suffer until 2026.
Ferrari will appear at the start of this season with considerably more horsepower than in recent years, so percolates the paddock. The Italian superpower is said to have made a bigger leap forward than between 2020 and 2021. If that's true, our mouths might soon fall open, because 2020 was the season that Ferrari was incredibly short of engine power due to a 'technical directive' and only finished sixth in the world championship.
Less horsepower Mercedes?
While Ferrari seems to have more horsepower at its disposal compared to last year, AMuS reports that Mercedes has given up a bit. This has everything to do with the switch to E10 fuel, as a result of which all teams lost around twenty horsepower. Ferrari is said to have managed to make up for that, but Mercedes hasn't yet.