2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

There are already provisions to allow more development time and money to engines that are down on power. If this is the case they will get opportunity to close the gap.

[catent]

What Ferrari will really do with the new engine fiasco if it's real? After 76 years i think for once they need to veto it.

Ferrari doesn't have absolute veto power in F1. Its veto power is limited only to changes in the regulations.

Regarding the compression ratio issue, the only thing Ferrari can do is exert its political clout to pressure the FIA, along with Honda and Audi, to ban the trick, as it has done several times to ban "tricks" from other teams in the past, with its usual threat to leave F1 if the FIA ​​does nothing.

Personally, I believe there's an overreaction to this. Absolutely nobody knows if Mercedes and Red Bull will actually gain 15hp more with this trick. And furthermore, 15hp more than what? Nobody will know the true power of the engines until they hit the track.

Having a more powerful ICE won't make much difference when the PU power in 2026 will be 52/48 from the combustion engine and electric motor. A more efficient electric motor and better power management to avoid clipping on the straights will make a much bigger difference than having a powerful combustion engine.

We'll see how this unfolds on the track, but I believe the FIA ​​will definitely do something if it's proven on the track that Mercedes and Red Bull engines have a considerable power advantage over the others. The political pressure from Ferrari will be too great for the FIA ​​to ignore, especially accompanied by two other manufacturers.

I've said elsewhere the FIA ​​shouldn't opt ​​for "nuclear" options like banning Mercedes and Red Bull engines, forcing them to redesign their engines less than three months before the season starts, which they definitely won't be able to do in time. They should explore "palliative" solutions like adding ballast to the cars or electronically limiting fuel flow to negate the power gains they would have with this trick, while both commit to developing a legal engine for 2027.

In short, I'm not really worried about this at the moment. F1 publications will certainly hype this "scandal" to the extreme to generate clicks during the off-season, but until pre-season testing, no team and no engine manufacturer knows where they will be in the pecking order in 2026.

Yes, the PU will be 52/48 ICE/electric in terms of nominal power, and yes, electrical efficiency and power management are critical, but that doesn’t make additional ICE horsepower less relevant; quite the opposite, in fact.

Under the new regulations, drivers won’t be able to keep the battery fully charged as easily, and electrical energy availability/deployment will be increasingly more relevant and critical for optimal performance (as you correctly pointed out). If your ICE is producing a bit more power, that not only directly increases lap performance but also allows you to regenerate more electrical energy through MGU-H and MGU-K.

That indirect effect can be more significant than the raw increase in ICE power. In other words, the 15hp might not just be 15hp; it could be the key to unlocking more available electrical energy to be deployed throughout a lap.

[PlatinumZealot]

Having a more powerful ICE won't make much difference when the PU power in 2026 will be 52/48 from the combustion engine and electric motor. A more efficient electric motor and better power management to avoid clipping on the straights will make a much bigger difference than having a powerful combustion engine.

This idea couldn't be any more wrong. Just like the MUGH regs having more power on the ICE will give a huge difference!
The ICE power is always there. Battery power is fading resource and the max is the same accross all teams with little differentiation. ICE fuel is limited but not the horsepower.

We saw what happened when a bad ICE means you're 30hp down and 1 second down the field.

[edu2703]

This idea couldn't be any more wrong. Just like the MUGH regs having more power on the ICE will give a huge difference!
The ICE power is always there. Battery power is fading resource and the max is the same accross all teams with little differentiation. ICE fuel is limited but not the horsepower.

The issue is that the electric motor will be much more significant next year, and the extra 15 hp from the ICE won't save you from losing hundreds of horsepower from the MGU-K in the middle of a straight at Monza because of low battery, or even preventing you from using overtake or maximum power modes due to excessive battery consumption from the MGU-K.

In other words, the 475 hp from the MGU-K won't be available to the drivers all the time, and they won't be using the MGU-K at maximum power during acceleration on every lap. The car's battery can't handle that, especially on circuits like Monza and Spa. The ICE power will always be there, but it will still only be approximately 540 hp. The MGU-K's fading power can make the difference between losing a whole second on a single straight section or not.

That's why I say: Power management will be extremely important in 2026. And another thing: The engine of the car that will win the championship next year won't necessarily have the most powerful ICE, but rather the one that best manages energy for the MGU-K.

All 2026 power units will have the MGU-K generating the maximum power allowed. The question is: Which PU will have the best power management of the MGU-K in races?

[bluechris]

Guys don't lipstick the pig, it will be still pig and don't tell me Ferrari that has veto power only for rule changes cannot press for a rule to measure the compression in other conditions.
What is unfolding for me from the same "innovators" is a joke really but i hold a bit because no one really knows if it is true but the door must be closed now on it with ruling.

[edu2703]

Guys don't lipstick the pig, it will be still pig and don't tell me Ferrari that has veto power only for rule changes cannot press for a rule to measure the compression in other conditions.
What is unfolding for me from the same "innovators" is a joke really but i hold a bit because no one really knows if it is true but the door must be closed now on it with ruling.

The problem is that, even under pressure, the FIA ​​is cornered and doesn't have many viable options to take with the season starting in less than three months.

I'll say one thing they definitely won't do: Simply ban the Mercedes and Red Bull engines, forcing them to redesign them and thus leaving six teams without engines for the start of the season.

And now I'll say another thing they could do: Say that these engines are "legal" only for this season and ban this trick in 2027. But this definitely won't please Ferrari, Audi, and Honda, essentially throwing away an entire season for the teams that use their engines.

[Badger]

This idea couldn't be any more wrong. Just like the MUGH regs having more power on the ICE will give a huge difference!
The ICE power is always there. Battery power is fading resource and the max is the same accross all teams with little differentiation. ICE fuel is limited but not the horsepower.

The issue is that the electric motor will be much more significant next year, and the extra 15 hp from the ICE won't save you from losing hundreds of horsepower from the MGU-K in the middle of a straight at Monza because of low battery, or even preventing you from using overtake or maximum power modes due to excessive battery consumption from the MGU-K.

In other words, the 475 hp from the MGU-K won't be available to the drivers all the time, and they won't be using the MGU-K at maximum power during acceleration on every lap. The car's battery can't handle that, especially on circuits like Monza and Spa. The ICE power will always be there, but it will still only be approximately 540 hp. The MGU-K's fading power can make the difference between losing a whole second on a single straight section or not.

That's why I say: Power management will be extremely important in 2026. And another thing: The engine of the car that will win the championship next year won't necessarily have the most powerful ICE, but rather the one that best manages energy for the MGU-K.

All 2026 power units will have the MGU-K generating the maximum power allowed. The question is: Which PU will have the best power management of the MGU-K in races?

A 15 hp ICE deficit would be more significant in 2026 than it would have been in 2025.