Haas F1 team principal Gunther Steiner has revealed he is in positive talks with Ferrari F1 team principal Mattia Binotto regarding the F1 power unit for the 2023 season.
Ferrari will begin testing this season’s F1 engine in 2021. Having spent that season developing the chassis, they have established themselves as one of the front runners this year.
Four victories for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz saw Ferrari beat Mercedes into second place in the championship, but ultimately lost out to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who took both titles.
The Haas F1 team itself has also used 2021 to prepare for the new technical regulations, climbing from bottom to eighth place in the championship after Kevin Magnussen returned alongside Mick Schumacher.
Gunther Steiner has hinted that Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo cars will be fitted with cool machinery in the rear for 2023 after Ferrari turned its attention to the engine department for the second half of the 2022 season.
“On Thursday I met Mattia Binotto and he told me that next season’s engine will be a horn bomb,” said Gunther Steiner at the Lorenzo Bandini Award ceremony, awarded to Kevin Magnussen.
“In Emilia-Romagna there is a lot of support for Ferrari and if the engine is competitive it will also be an advantage for us”.
The F1 engine has been frozen since 2022, but hybrid upgrades have been allowed until September. Ferrari reportedly experienced reliability issues with its F1 power unit during the 2022 season and was unable to exploit its full potential.
Kevin Magnussen took an impressive pole position at the penultimate round of the season in Brazil. He scored the majority of points for the 2022 Haas F1 team.
After two seasons of racing near the bottom, Gunther Steiner says he’s happy with the progress his team has made, but wants more.
“We’ve had two difficult years with the pandemic. The championship that just ended went well, but it could have been better,” explained Gunther Steiner.
“We have seen this year as a year of growth. Magnussen took an unexpected pole position. We hope to improve further in 2023. The goal is to move up the standings and always score points. To win and one day be on the podium”.
Following the departure of Mick Schumacher, Kevin Magnussen will team up with former Williams, Force India and Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg next year.
Gunther Steiner hopes the new driver line-up can maintain the team’s forward momentum.
“Next year we will take a step forward in single-seaters and hopefully beat AlphaTauri again,” added Gunther Steiner.
Mattia Binotto is set to leave Ferrari at the end of December and chairman John Elkann has not been impressed by a series of mistakes which have seen the team fail to seriously challenge for the title. A successor has not yet been announced.
Category: F1 / Hearth / Ferrari
