Ferrari want ‘freshest engine’ for Monza

Ferrari have explained their decision not to run their newest power unit update at Spa, saying they want the “freshest engine” possible for their home race, the Italian GP.

Although Haas and Alfa Romeo are both using Ferrari’s new engine at this weekend’s Belgian GP, the works team opted not.

Ferrari’s sporting director Laurent Meckies says that’s because they want the most powerful engine possible in the cars at Monza next weekend.

“It is the highest power effect of the year… What that means is you gain 10bhp on your engines and that is two tenths in your pocket,” Meckies explained to Autosport.

“A lot of people, including ourselves, use it [Monza] to bring their third and last power unit, although you may have seen a lot of our competitors have done that here.

“But there is a reason [why Ferrari has waited] – the engine’s performance may drop with mileage, so you want the freshest engine with the higher power effect of the year.”

Meanwhile Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto denied that the Scuderia are using their customers, Haas and Alfa Romeo, as guinea pigs.

“It is not useful,” he said when asked if it helped having their customers run the engine ahead of the works team.

“The reason is not to get real data, because by the time you introduce a unit it should be reliable, fully reliable and homologated and validated on the dyno.

“The reason we are introducing it is because we are on different scenarios in terms of allocations and in terms of mileage, and certainly by splitting the building of the engines it makes it a lot easier at the factory.”

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