Mercedes team principal and team boss Toto Wolff has revealed that Ferrari now has a 14 bhp performance advantage in terms of engine power. He revealed that this was the most dramatic performance jump a team had made on engine power since the advent of the V6 turbo hybrid engines which were introduced in 2014.
Wolff's unit had been behind the most dominant F1 engine in history since the dawn of the turbo-hybrid engine era which has propelled Mercedes to eight consecutive world titles. But in 2018 and 2019 Ferrari started challenging the silver arrows on engine power. In 2019 particularly, Ferrari's engine power enabled it to win three races and enabled Leclerc to be in pole position four times. But that engine was deemed to be illegal after the clarifications by the FIA.
In light of the FIA technical directives, Ferrari was now suddenly down on engine power with it rumored to be gaming the fuel flow pressure limits which enabled its devastating horsepower. This in turn dramatically impacted its 2020 car which was not only down on engine power but now had a very draggy chassis that was conceived for a more powerful engine. Ferrari had to basically write off its 2020 and 2021 seasons and it had been preparing for the 2022 regulations which also involved the addition of E10 fuel.
F1-75 has proven to be the most dynamic car on the 2022 grid with it working well both in the corners and the straights
Ferrari started showing improvements in 2021 with a much-improved engine which by the end of the year was only slightly down on engine power compared to Mercedes and Honda. Wolff has postulated that Ferrari had a deficit of around 14 bhp.
"Previously they were about 14bhp behind, but now they are another 14bhp ahead. We have never seen such big progress in such a short time," said the Mercedes team co-owner.
Ferrari ran two parallel engine programs one aimed for the 2021 season which had a short-term goal of making the car competitive enough for a top-three position in the constructors and the other aimed at engine performance ascendency. With the engine development freeze also kicking in from 2022 till the end of 2025, Ferrari wanted to develop a new engine that was responding well to Shell's E10 fuel mix and was reliable.
This has been witnessed already with the revival of all Ferrari-powered teams including Haas and Alfa Romeo. Ferrari has now fully shown its hand in terms of engine power if reports are to be believed and that's why in the first few races Red Bull has had an engine in straight-line speed which enabled Verstappen to win in Saudi Arabia. In response to Red Bull's speed in the straights which has been helped by a potent DRS wing and a car that doesn't get impacted by the 'bouncing effect", Ferrari unleashed an extra 5 bhp at Melbourne.
Ferrari is said to be working on completing a reliability program which could be concluded by the end of the race in Imola. In Barcelona, it is likely to bring a spec 2 engine which will be run harder that will likely unlock more performance. By the race in Miami, Ferrari is said to be bringing an update to the hybrid system which could add another 10 bhp.
While Wolff has remained coy on the fact that Mercedes has lost its engine performance advantage to Ferrari and perhaps to even Alpine and Honda, this was the first time he admitted that the team from Maranello has made huge gains and for once not really claimed that they could be doing something illegal.
"I can only congratulate them," he conceded.
