Ferrari no longer worries about the reliability of its engine

Faulty engines in the Ferrari F1-75 were one of the three parameters of last year’s Cavallino that cost Scuderia the Formula 1 championship. Now the Maranello team claims that this problem of poor engine reliability has been solved in the new Ferrari SF. 23 of the racing season starting March 5th.

Reliability improvements are the only interventions teams will be allowed to make until the end of 2025, as engine advancement is banned. With these improvements, Ferrari can now bring its engine back to full power – unlike in the second half of 2022, when it deliberately limited its power to avoid problems and failures.

It was reported in the Italian press that the Scuderia found 30 extra horsepower in their powerplant over the winter, but new team boss Fred Wasser categorically denied these reports. And now the Frenchman said: “I believe that the priority for everyone is reliability. Because when you’re at this point in the season, you can’t complete the three days unless you’re credible [χειμερινών δοκιμών] so you start wrong

We’ve done as many kilometers as we need to put on the dyno, we’re all optimistic, but only in Bahrain will we see where we stand in terms of reliability and performance. So far I can say that everything is fine“.

Scuderia engine boss Enrico Gualtieri explained how Ferrari solved the problems with the reliability of its power units: “Basically, the power units have been “frozen” since last year, including oil and fuel. And the only modifications allowed are those for reliability. In fact, lack of reliability was our Achilles’ heel last year.

And so we worked over the winter to solve our main problems and achieve the desired level of reliability. That was our goal for 2023. And our work in winter was based on that“.

The Italian added: “We focused in particular on combustion engines and electric motors. But at the same time we tried to use the experience we gained on the track last year. Accordingly, we have examined all the data and vulnerabilities of all components of the power unit that we use. Obviously, this affects various design parameters of certain components.

At the same time, we have also changed some processes in engine assembly. All employees from the engine department and our colleagues from the suppliers took part [εξαρτημάτων]. We worked across the board to try to understand the root causes of the issues we experienced at the track and used every tool at our disposal to try to solve them“.

Gualtieri concluded: “In the second half of the year, too, we made full use of the experience gained and further developed as many components as was deemed necessary. The work never ends, based on the continuous improvement of the components and the effort to achieve the desired level of reliability. We’ve seen some positive data on the bench with the changes we’ve introduced. But as usual, the track will tell us if we did a good job“.