Austria: Ferrari engine less powerful than in 2019!

Illustrated by the 11th place of Sebastian Vettel in Q2 this Saturday afternoon, unable to advance to Q3, Scuderia Ferrari is already experiencing the beginning of a crisis.

Lacking support, particularly at the front, with massive oversteer, the aerodynamic directions of the Italian team have failed. But it’s not just the aero that’s a problem: the Ferrari engine has evidently lost power!

Performance loss for the six Ferrari-powered cars

This observation attests to it: all the other cars drove faster… while those powered by Ferrari ran slower than their qualifying times in 2019 at the Red Bull Ring!

On the Scuderia’s side, 12 months ago, Charles Leclerc had clinched pole with a time of 1:03.003. This year, the Monegasque achieved a time of 1:03.923, nine-tenths slower.

Same scenario for Vettel, but also for both Alfa Romeos, which went from making Q3 in 2019 to the less flattering status of being the worst team, tied with Williams.

The third team powered by Ferrari is not catching up with the bad situation: on his Haas, Romain Grosjean loses six-tenths between 2019 and 2020! In contrast, all the other cars on the grid have improved since the last Austrian Grand Prix, except for Red Bull, which is stabilizing.

Leclerc last in top speed!

The difficulties faced by the three teams (and the six cars) powered by Ferrari seem to converge on free-falling performances. On the straight in Q3, Charles Leclerc was 8 km/h slower than Valtteri Bottas’s poleman Mercedes: 321.6 km/h for Bottas (second only to Hamilton for top speed) compared to 312.4 km/h for Leclerc, simply the slowest Vmax among the 20 drivers!

A heresy compared to 2019: back then in pole, the Monegasque was the fastest, with a speed of 325.7 km/h. This Saturday, Leclerc was 13.3 km/h slower in a straight line!

Super powerful in mid-2019, Ferrari’s engine performance declined at the end of last season, starting from the United States Grand Prix. This coincided with the publication of two FIA directives on engine consumption. At the time, the FIA reminded teams that it was forbidden to bypass the fuel flow meter and inject fuel into the engine without it being measured… which was precisely what Ferrari’s rivals, including Red Bull, accused the Scuderia of doing.

If since then the Scuderia has made a secret (controversial) agreement with the FIA, the Italian engine has lost its luster. And the long 2019-2020 off-season has clearly worsened the problem, considering the figures mentioned in this article.