Ferrari seems confident that the team will avoid the disaster that was the 2020 Formula One season as their new power-unit has much improved straightline speed amongst other crucial upgrades.
In 2020, the prestigious Italian team had its worst championship in 40 years by finishing sixth in the constructor's standings, with Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto admitting F1's latest “technical directives had pegged them back”.
The team is now aiming to get its 2021 season off the best possible start with the all-new SF21 designed to address and resolve the engine and aerodynamic issues that plagued them last year.
The Maranello-based team toiled over the winter to improve on last season's relatively poor performance, with an all-new power unit – which will also feature in both the Haas and Alfa Romeo cars – being designed ahead of the 2021 season in a bid to get the SF21 back to the front of the grid.
Following the three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain this week, Ferrari boss Binotto seemed optimistic and said they could see noticeable improvements when compared to last year's much-maligned SF20: “We knew that with only three days it would be very busy and very intense – it has been very busy and intense.
“I think so far it has run smoothly. The main priority was certainly to understand the car's behaviour, mapping in all the conditions, and that is where we focused our energy.
“I think so far we collected a lot of data – that data now needs to be analysed and [we need to] understand the variations between the track, wind tunnel, simulation, etc. But I have to say in terms of data measurements all went very smooth and we made our mileage and somehow we follow our plan,” Binotto said on the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
“Obviously we know how the engine is running on the dyno. When you fit it in the car what you may have a look at on track is the speed and eventually the relative speed to the others.
“When we were here last year in Bahrain for the race and for qualifying we’ve been very slow here on the straights – we didn’t enter into Q3 and we were very distant from pole. Now if I look at the first days I think at least on the straights the speed is alright. It doesn't seem to be such a disadvantage as it was last year.
“We know it’s not only power, it’s the drag of the car as well – as we often said last year – but let me say that both of them contributed in improving our speed on the straights and today we feel it is not anymore a disadvantage,” he added.
The 2021 Formula One season gets underway this weekend in Bahrain.
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Keyword: Ferrari's F1 straightline speed no longer a "disadvantage"