Ferrari lacks power and time: This is behind the drivetrain problem

– “At least I was right about one thing!” Although Frederic Vasseur joked, the Ferrari team principal wanted to emphasize a statement he had already made before the Italian Grand Prix and which was subsequently confirmed: The Ferrari power unit equipped with developments enabled by ADUO2 could not close the performance gap to the reference units from Mercedes and Red Bull-Ford.

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Monza, a track where power units have a decisive influence on performance, clearly showed how right Vasseur was with his assessment: In free practice and qualifying, the SF-26s of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were still close to the cars of the competition.

However, the race presented a different picture: Mercedes celebrated a safe one-two finish, while Hamilton was the only Ferrari driver to finish behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull as well as the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

The Monza conclusion from Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur

“In the end, we simply lack power,” said Vasseur after the Grand Prix. “I don’t want to go into detail, but if you lack pure power, you start playing with energy output to compensate on a straight. But if you give more energy in one place, you inevitably have less available in another. That puts you in a negative spiral.”

The energy output itself is not Ferrari’s problem. “It was pretty good,” explained Vasseur. “The reality, however, is: If you lack X in Zandvoort, your deficit is two or three tenths of a second. If you lack slightly less than X in Monza, the gap to Mercedes is twice as big.”

Vasseur deliberately did not give exact numbers: “I use letters because I know you will try to extrapolate something from it.” As long as X remains unknown, all calculations are not very useful.

How good is the Ferrari update? Clear words from Oliver Bearman

One thing is clear: Ferrari still has catching up to do. This is confirmed by Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who also used the upgraded Ferrari power unit last weekend. His verdict: “The new power unit is a significantly smaller step than the [aerodynamics] update, let’s put it that way. The aero brought us two or three times as much.”

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“Of course, the new power unit brings something on a track like Monza. But over the entire season, it would not have been enough to get us out of the fight in Q1 if we had already used this power unit in Zandvoort. I don’t think it would have been a game changer.”

Ferrari: A real progress earliest in 2027?

And such a game changer will probably only be possible for the Ferrari power unit in 2027. Because extracting more power from a Formula 1 power unit is, according to Vasseur, not only technically complex but also an “extremely lengthy process.” Development and production of the components require a lot of time. In addition, costs must be controlled down to the last detail.

“We produce power units for the current season and have to produce a new batch when development is initiated. That is complicated,” explained the Ferrari team principal.

At least: Ferrari is making “small progress,” assured Vasseur. “We did not expect to close the gap with ADUO1 or ADUO2 within two months. But one must not forget: If you achieve a small progress in the power unit and gain only a few horsepower yourself, that can already be a good step in the balance of power.”

“Beyond that, the goal remains unchanged: We want to close the entire gap as quickly as possible.” From Ferrari’s perspective, this seems realistic only in 2027.

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