Haas mounts the ADUO engine on only one car: an important comparison opportunity
The fact that Haas has only one Ferrari ADUO-2 engine available, mounted on Oliver Bearman’s car, offers us this weekend an interesting comparison to try to uncover the differences between the pre- and post-update power units. Moreover, the Monza track, with its few corners and the centrality of the engine to performance, lends itself even more to this analysis.
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We therefore took Leclerc’s best lap of the day (as a useful reference), along with those of the two Haas drivers, and compared them, and the differences appeared macroscopic and evident.
Differences in the second half of the lap: increased efficiency seems to be the key
Before analyzing the data a bit more deeply, there is an obvious premise to make, namely that none of the 3 drivers analyzed was using the Power Unit in push mode. The definitive verdict on this topic will come from qualifying, but the differences were significant enough to deserve a preliminary comment. It is noted that the performances are almost overlapping throughout the first half of the lap. The fastest of the three in the first sector is actually Bearman, but Ocon is behind by “only” a tenth and a half, accumulated more at the first chicane than on the straight. At the Roggia braking, Leclerc also performs an evident Lift and Coast not executed by the Haas drivers. But it is after the second Lesmo corner, on the downhill straight towards Ascari, that the first macroscopic difference is seen, with Ocon capping at a speed 10 km/h lower than his teammate (and 14 compared to Leclerc). Passing Ascari, where the Haas cars are over 15 km/h slower than the Ferrari, and then the straight to Parabolica. And here Bearman is even faster than Leclerc, gaining, according to our calculations, about a tenth and a half on the Monegasque, despite having seen how Ferrari unloads all the available energy precisely in that section, fully recovering the gap from Mercedes. Bearman, despite starting 16 km/h slower than Leclerc exiting Ascari, quickly reaches 321 km/h, 5 more than the Monegasque and 9 more than his teammate Ocon. The gap remains almost unchanged with Leclerc until the braking (4 km/h), but opens up to 13 km/h with Ocon. The same pattern is noticed exiting Parabolica towards the finish line.
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Energy and efficiency matter
Net of maps, tires, fuel quantity, and so on, the impression here is quite clear: Ocon, with the old engine, after the first half of the lap is definitely short of energy and must necessarily cap at much lower speeds than the best, with also hints of clipping and super-clipping. It is indicative instead to see how Bearman and Leclerc, both with the PU-Aduo 2, have a decidedly similar trend and with much more energy to spend in the last section. It is known that one of the aspects Ferrari has worked on the most is precisely the overall efficiency of the system as well as pure power. Recovering energy and using it efficiently guarantees greater availability as you approach the end of the lap, exactly the section where we have often seen Ferrari struggle compared to rivals, just as in this case we see Ocon collapse in performance. An indirect confirmation also comes from an evidently greater torque. We note from the telemetry that the shift points are still similar among the three drivers, despite Ocon ending acceleration around 10 km/h lower. The Frenchman’s engine therefore simply runs at a lower rpm, about 400 revolutions per minute less, compared to Leclerc and Bearman, confirming an engine that seems not to have the power (and therefore the energy) to push and raise the rpm as the updated ones do.
Waiting for qualifying to validate
Now it is difficult to think that this is the real advantage of the Ferrari engine’s ADUO 2 update, given that Ocon leaves 9 tenths behind his teammate between the second and third sectors, but the impression is that the trend is truthful, that is the difference we will see will be precisely in the energy availability in the second part of the lap, albeit perhaps less than what was detected on the first day. The first real test of this topic will be qualifying: there no one will be able to hide anymore and there will be the possibility to weigh this very important update to the Ferrari power unit more precisely.
