Ferrari engine, no ADUO can change that
Several months ago Lewis Hamilton had dampened enthusiasm for the updates to the Ferrari engine granted by the ADUO allocations. The English champion said in May that he did not expect the Prancing Horse to be able to close the gap to Mercedes by the end of the year, and events proved him right.
The two updates to the Ferrari power unit installed in Austria and Monza improved the situation, but essentially the progress has not been huge and Mercedes is still the benchmark in thermal engine, hybrid, and energy management.
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Vasseur has no illusions
“The engine process is mega long,” admitted team principal Frederic Vasseur frankly on Sunday afternoon in Monza, explaining: “It’s not the chassis where you can bring a development from one day to the next very quickly and recover on pace. On the engine side, the process is mega long, because the delivery times for parts are long and with the budget cap it’s not easy.”
The French manager continued: “We did not expect to recover the disadvantage with ADUO 1 or ADUO 2. We are making small steps, but it must be kept in mind that even with few horsepower you can make a good leap forward on the grid. Now we have planned a new engine for next year, with ADUO 1 2027, and surely the goal is to close the gap as soon as possible. But we did not expect to stitch up the gap in a couple of months from Mercedes.”
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Vasseur’s reference to the ‘new engine’ 2027 is easily identifiable not as a simple development of the current unit, but more as a different concept of power unit.
Currently Ferrari is in second place in the constructors’ championship, 122 points behind Mercedes, the undisputed leader since the start of the championship.
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