Ferrari has disclosed how anomalies with Charles Leclerc’s engine post-Miami triggered the power unit change on his car for Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Leclerc took on a complete new powertrain for the Miami Grand Prix, but it has been revealed that there were some discrepancies in the data in checks after the race.
Although the Monegasque’s SF-24 car has now been fitted with the third engine in his pool, Ferrari Power Unit Technical Director Enrico Gualtieri has cooled concerns.
Gualtieri has explained how the Italian marque’s desire to ensure it maximised the chances of seamless running with its new upgrade package was behind the choice.
“Yeah, it was not intended in terms of the fine plan,” Gualtieri said. “But after [the] Miami race, our usual post-race checks didn’t fit completely on our standard values.
“So nothing to be worried about at this stage. But simply we decided to minimize any kind of potential criticality over this day that is quite an important one.
“So we decided, being frozen the engine, we cannot put it on the dyno. So we need track experience to confirm the possibility and the capability of the engine to go on.
“We will use the engine again over the season and being the third unit fundamentally equal to the second one is just managing the pool.
“So we will use it again over the next Fridays and then we’ll go on with the standard plan.”
He added: “As I was saying before, after the Miami race, our analysis didn’t fit completely with what is the usual outcome.
“Just for precaution, given that we cannot put the engine on the dyno to get any additional experience to confirm or not, we will reuse it in the next Fridays.
“Yes, it was just to minimize any potential risk or simply downtime in track timing for this important event, for the upgrades and for building on data analysis for that.”
Ferrari’s weekend on home soil commenced on an encouraging note as Leclerc utilised the upgraded car to take top spot in opening practice, with Carlos Sainz third.
However, Gualtieri has warned that it would be premature to draw conclusions on the Maranello-based squad’s developments as it bids to close the gap on Red Bull.
“I couldn’t really comment too much on the technical upgrades,” he said. “But I think that anyway, it’s still early days.
“We decided as a team to bring the upgrades here for being a common session.
“So we are just at the beginning of the Friday session. We did what we intended to do in terms of plan.
“So now it will be a huge analysis of the data for the FP2 and then immediately after the FP2. And then we will see.
“And hopefully we can build on these upgrades later on for the session and for the season.”
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