Ferrari is currently leading both world championships of the 2022 F1 season after a dream start, with a dominant one-two finish in the opening race in Bahrain and with its drivers back on the podium in Saudi Arabia.
The red single-seater of this course has always been present in the positions of honor, so we can speak of a total revolution in Maranello, even more so after seeing the hardships they went through in previous campaigns.
The F1-75 of the new technical regulations has a peculiar background, although the upper part has also attracted the eyes of the most observant, demonstrating that Enrico Cardile’s engineering team has been able to take a step forward.
The 2022 cars bring back the familiar ground effect, which said goodbye to the Grand Circus in the 1980s, and Ferrari seems to have been able to perfectly understand the new aerodynamic regulations.
However, part of the credit for the Italians’ success at the start of the course is due to their power unit, the 066/7, which represents a great advance, and which has allowed them to close the gap, even surpass, Mercedes and Honda. .
We must recognize the courage of Mattia Binotto in betting on Wolf Zimmermann’s ‘Superfast’ project, with an endothermic engine designed by the German, which represents a clear break with last year’s concept.
There is a new fuel system in the combustion chamber, which guarantees an extremely fast explosion phase, and that is something that has given Ferrari customer teams wings.
Haas and Alfa Romeo managed to score valuable points at the start of 2022, and part of this is due to the power unit, in which the speed of flame propagation has been improved, offering more homogeneity to the mixture. between air and fuel and to the burst phase.
The Italian engine showed great acceleration out of the corners, somewhat boosted by the excellent traction of the Ferrari F1-75, although it did not lose any performance points in terms of top speed. The most curious wonder how it is possible that this engine is so efficient, both in terms of acceleration and reaching the limit, and there is no single answer.
However, one of the most innovative aspects has to do with the intake system, inside the casing, where there are quite long variable geometry ducts, and if you look up, there is a kind of ‘snake’ carbon that first appears in the 066/7 .
Ferrari F1-75 power unit detail
These are composite tubes that are not part of the homologated engine and that can be modified both in design and length, all to ‘tune’ the 6-cylinder engine to the characteristics of the track where Ferrari is found. So it should come as no surprise that the Prancing Horse ‘s power unit is so well suited to the different circuits on the Formula 1 calendar.
Before concluding, one last important point, and that is that several media outlets have pointed out that the 066/7 is a converted engine, with a separation of the compressor tube, following a concept introduced by Mercedes in 2014 , and which was then taken over by Honda and now Renault. This is not true, since Ferrari’s architecture is still classic, and with it they will try to hit the final table to get that title that has eluded them for a decade and a half.
