Alpine suspicious of Ferrari’s ‘bomb’ engine

The development of Formula 1 engines was banned from September 1, 2022, with the aim of giving manufacturers the opportunity to develop the new 2026 engines at no additional cost – and to devote their infrastructure and budget exclusively to those which they will prepare over the next three years.

However, Ferrari has reportedly upped its engine by 30 hp compared to 2022. This was made possible because manufacturers are only allowed to intervene in the drive unit to improve its reliability.

What is known is that from the summer of 2022, Ferrari was forced to deliberately limit the power of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s engines in order to eliminate the reliability problems that forced the Monegasque and the Spaniard to resign.

By improving the reliability of the V6 turbos, the Maranello team can now fully exploit them again in 2023. However, according to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, Alpine bosses are not convinced that the improvements alone have enabled the Scuderia’s reliability to reap such a high performance advantage.

Alpine’s concerns apply not only to Ferrari, but also to the other two manufacturers that are leaders in the sport: Mercedes and RBPT-Honda. This indirectly shows that both have found a way to crank their engines for the new season, which begins on March 5 with the Bahrain GP.

Specifically, according to the Italian publication, Mercedes found an additional 16 hp, and Red Bull Powertrains-Honda improved the performance of its hybrid power unit by 10 hp. Alpine, which uses Renault engines, is the only company that has reportedly not increased its engine power – despite severe and multiple reliability issues in 2022.

As a result, Renault engineers are “suspicious” of competitors’ interventions to improve the reliability of their engines at a time when they themselves have not been able to identify corresponding performance benefits.

That’s what Bruno Famen, head of the team’s engine department in Viry, France, said recently “There is no margin [βελτίωσης] because according to the regulations, you cannot improve the performance of the engine. We can try to improve the car’s performance and the flexibility that the regulations give us has to do with the layout.

For example, we can modify the import or export to allow our colleagues at Enstone [στο εργοστάσιο των σασί] to improve aerodynamics. We’re working on it. When it comes to energy management, we are very limited because we only have one piece of software now [χαρτογράφηση] for the whole year. We’re pushing like that, but it’s more about the drivability of the engine. So it has nothing to do with engine power.he continued.

According to the Italian newspaper, Mercedes developed its engine by reducing internal mechanical friction and developing lubricants in collaboration with its supplier Petronas. Thus, it improved combustion efficiency. For its part, Red Bull Powertrains-Honda managed to find the 10 extra horsepower by improving the reliability of the two electric motors MGU-H and MGU-K.

But Famen doubts: “What exactly does a reliability issue mean? Of course, behind every reliability issue is a potential performance benefit. The boundary is not always very clear. If you have a water pump problem like we had in 2022, it’s clearly a reliability problem, you gain nothing by having a better dispenser.

Changing the material of the piston rings gives you something stronger that gives you more power. So where is the limit? It is not visible. Now I expect the FIA ​​to be a bit stronger in the future. It’s been very resilient in 2022 and I think that was normal because everyone was affected by reliability.”concluded the Frenchman.