Ferrari have engine advantage over their rivals

SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM – AUGUST 31: Felipe Massa of Brazil and Ferrari drives during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit of Spa Francorchamps on August 31, 2012 in Spa Francorchamps, Belgium. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

The Scuderia Ferrari may not have been the quickest car but the car has shown great reliability and neither of their drivers have suffered any mechanical issues this year. This meant that Ferrari have used only four engines while others have used five and under current regulations a team can use only eight engines per driver in a season.

“Looking at the current situation, we have used four engines and it’s five for our main competitors. So that could be to our advantage by the end of the season. Once we get to Monza, that will become six for us and seven for the others. Looking at the power differences, it can be up to one tenth of a second difference in qualifying,” said Mattia Binotto head of Ferrari engine and KERS development.

Formula 1 will be using current v8 engines only upto 2013 and speaking about 2014 v6 turbos here is what Binotto had to say:

“Everything is a real challenge with the new power units. Having two projects overlapping is quite difficult. It also means that all of the dynos, at some stage, need to be transformed from V8s to V6s and, as we go, we will keep having one less dyno for V8 development. It’s really, really difficult to get it right with the timing, but every day we do that will be one more day of development with the V6, which you have to move over to at some point.”

The Friday practice sessions also saw Felipe Massa with a blown engine. The team have confirmed that the engine was an old unit and has completed two races. Felipe will have a new engine for the rest of the weekend.