New development regarding power units in 2024 F1 season could put Ferrari and Renault on the back foot: Reports

It is being reported that Ferrari and Renault might be on the back foot heading into the 2024 season as the teams will only be allowed to run three power units over the course of the entire 24 races.

Heading into the 2023 season, the FIA had allowed the teams to use one additional power unit given that there were 22 races and six sprint races on the calendar. However, as per Motorsport Italy, Mercedes and Honda will both race with three power units in the 2024 season.

This could be a huge blow for the Italian team and Renault as they struggled to get the most out of their power units even when they were allowed to race with four last year.

The Prancing Horses ran a duration of six thousand kilometers per PU in 2023 and would have to increase it to seven and a half thousand kilometers and eight races for each power unit.

Some in the paddock believe that this is a move designed to slow down the progress of Ferrari heading into the 2026 season, where we will see new engine regulations.

Ferrari team boss gives an update on the 2024 challenger

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur recently stated that the team needed to focus on improving the performance of the car heading into the 2024 season over the winter break. The Frenchman pointed out that the expectations were 'focused' on themselves, saying (as per Motorsport.com):

"Now, the expectation is that we are focused on ourselves. We are doing a good step forward. But in the end, it's always a matter of comparison. You can improve by 100 but if the others are improving by 120, you will look stupid. If they are improving by 80, you will look like a mega hero."

He continued:

"So far, the most important is to continue to push, to continue to develop, to have the drivers into the middle of the project and they are fully involved in the development. I think that, so far, we are going in the right direction. I don't know if the others will go more or less. We will see in Bahrain."

Vasseur also claimed that the 2024 challenger will be '95%' different from the SF-70 and that the team was chasing a performance improvement of a couple of tenths. Hopefully for them, the reduction in power units next season won't prove to be too costly to their progress on the track.