Formula 1’s most historic team hasn’t enjoyed much success in recent years. Ferrari has failed to win a championship since 2008 and last year experienced their worst season since 1980, finishing a dismal sixth in the constructor’s standings.
Written By Ganeshraj, Edited By Aiden Hover
Tifosi around the world will be hoping that their beloved team in red can begin to turn things around for 2021 and beyond. From the outside, the team appears to be making important changes to put themselves back on the right track, a major example being the new signing of Carlos Sainz to partner Ferrari prodigy, Charles Leclerc. Sainz proved during his brief stint at McLaren that he is a driver deserving of race-winning machinery, and is one who Redbull and Renault have supposedly passed over. He will be hoping his new employers will provide him with the right machinery to achieve his championship goals.
The biggest story over the past two seasons concerning Ferrari has been its controversial engine that it ran during 2019 and the confidential settlement it reached with the FIA regarding it. Whilst we won’t be talking about that today, it’s safe to assume that its engine was a leading contributor to Ferrari’s sudden fall last year, as all Ferrari-powered cars seemed to struggle with the 2020 (post-settlement) engine. Ferrari, however, is reportedly working on a revolutionary new engine for the 2022 season to fix the lack of performance in its 2020/2021 engine. It is important to note that, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the new 2021 technical regulations have been pushed back to 2022, with a token-based development freeze put in place for 2021 which will explain Ferrari only bringing a slight upgrade to this year’s engine with the big revolution being held off until 2022. This will mean that fans will see an all-new Ferrari with an overhauled engine and an all-new aerodynamic package that will, hopefully, come together to make the perfect machine for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to challenge the all-conquering Mercedes. Only time will tell how successful this project will be
The main man behind the project is Mr. Wolf Zimmermann, who has been given the mammoth task of propelling the team to the top of the timesheets and re-inventing Ferrari’s engine. One of the most radical changes he aims to bring to the engine project is the separation of the compressor from the turbo which are both currently on the gearbox side of the car. This will follow the footsteps of Mercedes and Honda who switched to a similar layout several years ago. From next year, the two elements will be reportedly connected by a shaft and be positioned either side of the engine. Other fundamental changes include reducing the overall size of the engine. This will not only reduce the weight of the car but will also allow for more aerodynamic freedom along with greater fine-tuning of its weight distribution and center of gravity.
For the moment, all these engine changes are just plans and we won’t know the actual viability and performance of them until the car gets out on track in 2022. Everyone is eager to see the Prancing Horse back at the front of the field but we will have to wait to see if Ferrari can take the steps needed to make this possible for its beloved Tifosi.