Ferrari now open to the idea of ​​an engine freeze in 2022

Could it be time to thaw positions on the issue of engine freezing? Mattia Binotto declared this Friday that Ferrari was now in favor of regulating engine development from the 2022 season, a measure that Red Bull calls for his wishes. 

On that date, the Austrian group in fact wishes to recover the engine designed by its current supplier Honda, which will leave the F1 at the end of the 2021 campaign, without spending thousands and cents to improve it. 

In an interview given to the Journal of Sport A few weeks ago, Louis Camilleri, general manager of Ferrari, considered engine freezing to be contrary to the spirit of sport and said he was firmly opposed to its application. 

Since then, meetings have continued between the various stakeholders in the sport and Maranello is visibly ready to put water in its wine, provided that the future generation of propellants, planned for 2026, is brought forward by one year. 

« We said there were rules in place and these allowed Red Bull to enter into an engine partnership with another supplier, commented Binotto ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. 

We also understand their desire to continue using the Honda engine in the future. We have participated in meetings with F1 and the FIA ​​​​in recent days.

We are being cooperative in trying to bring forward the engine freeze by a year, as this would also mean an introduction of the new powertrains from 2025. This is not the first time that Ferrari has been reasonable. 

In the end, we will support the freeze by anticipating the new engines by a year ».

Ferrari joins Mercedes in the camp of manufacturers in favor of development restrictions on the engine plan from 2022. 

It will now be interesting to know the position of Renault on this question of freeze. A few weeks ago, Cyril Abiteboul, general director of Renault Sport Racing, had clearly positioned himself against such a measure but we have just seen with the Scuderia that in Formula 1 the truth of the day is not that of the next day... 

As a reminder, the 2022 engines will retain the same architecture as the 6 turbo hybrid V1.6 introduced in 2014 but they will now have to consume 10% of so-called advanced fuel. 

As for the future generation of thrusters, discussions are well underway to find out which formula is best suited to current economic and ecological issues. Binotto estimates that the new format must be decided by mid-2021 if F1 wants to use it from 2025. The head of Gestione Sportiva would also like it to be half as expensive as the current hybrid blocks.