The removal of the “Party Mode”: an advantage for Ferrari?

The FIA recently announced to all teams in the paddock that from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, and for the rest of the season, they will no longer be allowed to use an engine mode that provides an extra boost of power during the qualifying session. As a reminder, Mercedes was the first team suspected of having a button to boost their car in Q3. This led to a humorous exchange between Vettel and Hamilton during a press conference in Melbourne in 2018: See the video at the end of the article. Today, most teams have this performance mode specifically dedicated to qualifying.

At the Monza circuit, the temple of speed, engine performance is key whether in qualifying or in the race; something that doesn’t favor Ferrari this year. The team from Maranello is lagging in top speed, hence the difficulties encountered at Spa with an elimination in Q2 and a narrow pass from Q1.

With this ban on the party mode, Ferrari might succeed in reducing the gap in pure performance that separates them from other teams, especially during qualifications. …it’s also important to have a good starting position on the grid because when you’re stuck in traffic, it’s even harder to get the car to work. So at Monza, this new FIA regulation will have a strong impact… Mattia Binotto recalled while discussing the impact of the elimination of Qualification modes on the race at the Italian Grand Prix.

If optimism is prevalent with the Team Principal of Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, expects a challenging weekend at Monza. The meeting is set for this Saturday to assess the impact of the FIA’s decision on the performance of Mercedes and Ferrari during qualifying.

Video recap of the post-qualification press conference in Melbourne 2018: