At Ferrari they have their eyes set on the French GP , after a bittersweet weekend in Austria. Charles Leclerc, who won at the Red Bull Ring and broke his losing streak, faces it with the mentality of one who has to continue cutting points from the world leader, Max Verstappen, in order to go on vacation as close as possible.
Those from Maranello hope that Paul Ricard will be the turning point of a very long season of 22 grand prix, in which the reliability of the engine will play an important role, if it is not decisive.
If we stick to the numbers, Ferrari has reason to worry: they are the ones that have covered the fewest kilometers in the eleven races held so far, just 5,280 km , closely followed by Alfa Romeo and Haas, their two customer teams.
But the Scuderia is not giving up. It intends to homologate a fourth power unit in Carlos Sainz’s car, after making some modifications and perhaps even introducing an improved ERS ahead of time that could give them a good number of extra horsepower. They know that this will obviously result in a sanction, but the Italians are willing to comply.
El Ferrari de Carlos Sainz trans verse obligado a retirarse en Austria
The big point to improve on the part of Ferrari is reliability . The last show of power of the 066/7 was in Austria, when they were on their way to achieving a double, but it also showed the dark side: the high performance of the engine could not do anything to withstand the efforts that were required of it.
At the Red Bull Ring , as happened in Baku , the 6-cylinder collapsed. The only positive thing that can be drawn is that it was Sainz ‘s second engine, and not the third. The third power unit , premiered at Silverstone , is still available, but it will not be the one fitted to his F1-75.
The reason is simple: the new endothermic engine will carry a series of changes compared to the previous version, which are the result of the data that was collected after Leclerc abandoned in Baku, and that Sainz’s third engine does not have. The engineers led by Enrico Gualtieri hope to extend the life of this power unit, but the Spaniard will have to penalize Paul Ricard.
Taking advantage of the circumstances, they could also bring forward the arrival of the new hybrid part of the 066/7 which, according to the planning of the season, should have arrived after the summer holidays, in Spa or Monza .
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
If so, Ferrari would land in France with the intention of aspiring to a double, to try to make Leclerc’s recovery of points more constant against Verstappen’s Red Bull.
But what will happen to the Monegasque engines? It will continue to have two recently approved power units (numbers 4 and 5, both released in Canada ), while its partner will enjoy an engine that should be just as competitive but less fragile.
This fourth engine from the Madrid native becomes a strategic piece for Ferrari, as it will serve to plan the second half of the season: with a more robust power unit, the Scuderia will also be able to mark the next power unit change on the calendar for Leclerc, possibly without encountering more breakdowns that force them to do it when they don’t want to.
In the meantime, there could be other reliability modifications that the Maranello engineers would integrate into the engine. If so, we would have an extraordinary test of the response capacity of the Ferrari sports management part, as long as the two current Leclerc engines hold without giving more surprises…
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