The 2020 Ferrari engine is the subject of all criticism after yesterday’s qualifications in Austria, the first of the season … and the first since Ferrari signed a secret agreement with the FIA concerning its 2019 power unit.
All the data prove it: the Ferrari 2020 is less powerful. And it’s not just Ferrari that has lost almost 1 second compared to last year’s time. At Alfa Romeo, we lost 1.1s and at Haas 0.6s.
Helmut Marko launched a “very interesting Ferrari engine development!” that says a lot.
And Toto Wolff, director of Mercedes F1, is no longer hiding now to suggest between the lines that the 2019 engine was indeed illegal.
“I don’t want to comment on that anymore, I think we’ve said enough. And it’s not Ferrari that says aerodynamic performance is at stake, it’s Mattia Binotto. And, uh … I can no longer hear his arguments! “
It is difficult to find someone to defend Ferrari and at Haas, one of the customers, we clearly make faces.
“It is always difficult to compare different years but overall all Ferrari engine users have declined in qualifying while the rest have all improved a lot. I guess we had an advantage last year that we don’t seem to have anymore , “ comments Romain Grosjean.
Kevin Magnussen does not enter this field when he is asked the question of the loss of power of the Ferrari 2020. “People can speculate as much as they want, I don’t want to do it.”
Finally it is Günther Steiner who puts his feet in the dish and wants to discuss with his supplier to find out why his V6 is not at the level.
“You can see a trend among everyone powered by Ferrari,” launches the director of Haas F1.
“We haven’t done a big analysis yet, we haven’t talked to them yet and you can ask them questions. They may know more than I do.”
“For my part it is obvious that I cannot say that it is fantastic. Look at the position of Ferrari, that of Alfa Romeo and ours. We must discuss it with them to know the cause.”
“Now it seems certain that we are going to have a difficult season,” added Steiner, referring to the fact that there will be no engine upgrades.
“We will be able to do a little better on certain circuits (which do not depend on the engine) but to qualify as we could sometimes do last year, I believe that this will unfortunately not happen to us any more this year.”
According to several sources who spoke in the paddock, the FIA would have knocked so hard on the fingers that it is an almost entirely new V6 which had to be designed for this season by the Scuderia and which would show a deficit of up to 100 horses compared to last year.
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