Ferrari: the problem is not the engine itself, but how it works with the car

The Austrian Grand Prix brought Ferrari back down to earth, underlining above all the gap in engine power compared to the competition. The update introduced in Spielberg itself was not enough – however limited it was, as explained several times by the engineers themselves – and it will be necessary to work for a long time on the second evolutionary step to at least try to further limit the damage on unfavorable tracks. However, despite being the main cause of Ferrari’s bad weekend at the Red Bull Ring, we must not forget many other limiting factors, first and foremost how the engine itself integrates with the rest of the car to optimize performance, starting with tire management. “It’s always difficult to separate the performance that comes from the power unit from that which comes from the chassis and the aerodynamic resistance you have in the chassis – said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella – For example, if we look at our top speeds and those of Mercedes, we see that they are quite different despite having the same power unit. This raises some questions, in relation to the resistance of our car and also to other variables, including the exploitation of the power unit itself.” “The one thing we can see, and this has been confirmed by the ADUO assessment by the FIA, is that Mercedes at the moment appears to have something more to offer than Ferrari from a power unit point of view in general.” On the question of the operating conditions of the thermal part at altitude, Stella did not go too far: “I couldn’t say how much this factor influences the power unit in terms of relative competitiveness, compared to performance at sea level. I’m not sure if this favors Mercedes or Ferrari.” The degradation affected the strategy To try to balance the engine’s deficiencies, Ferrari made aggressive choices in terms of set-up by shifting the balance to the front. The objective was to enhance the characteristics of the SF-26 in the fast corners of the second sector, in the hope of being able to manage overheating at the rear. However, this was not the case, generating very high thermal degradation with both of the harder compounds brought by Pirelli. “I wasn’t surprised when Hamilton pitted with the Virtual Safety Car, having stopped very early at the end of the first stint. In fact, I think the VSC came at a relatively good time for Lewis – said Stella – I think for them it was more a question of pace [al di là della strategia, ndr]. But I’m not sure if it’s just the absolute pace in the race, or probably a bit of additional degradation of the tires compared to the others.” “Ferrari opted for a short first stint, so I think the strategic element is also a factor that needs to be taken into consideration when evaluating everything because, when you have this high level of degradation, you have to somehow make sure you extend the times, so that your stints aren’t too penalized by the degradation itself. In any case, it was a relatively positive surprise to see that we could compete with Ferrari.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-30 11:00:00