Ferrari engine upgrade shows 'continuous development'

Ferrari chief technical officer Mattia Binotto says the fact the team has spent all of its power unit tokens highlights its pace of development.

Power unit manufacturers each have 32 development tokens to use this season in updating their engine, with Ferrari becoming the first to spend its final tokens ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Binotto - who replaced James Allison having previously been chief operating officer, power unit - says the latest upgrade shows how hard Ferrari has been pushing.

"It will be difficult to judge and I think we will discover it in qualifying," Binotto said when asked what he hopes the upgrade will deliver. "No doubt that we are continuously developing and by developing the power unit for the regulations we are spending tokens.

"The fact we are spending our last means that somehow we spent whatever was possible this season, which means a continuous development, higher rate possibly. I think it’s really too early to see what will be the benefit.

"We know what’s the value; let’s see what the others have done. I know Mercedes spent five tokens in Belgium so no doubt they will have an advantage as well."

And Binotto says the performance gap between engine manufacturers is definitely closing after nearly three years with the current power unit regulations.

"Performance-wise, manufacturers are converging. I think that when you’re at a certain stage of convergence it becomes even difficult to split the affect from powertrain to chassis and aero. I think that it means so far, at the moment, we are really close and the difference is not any more as it was in the past.

"In Monza how much it may do ... in Monza the horsepower difference is the equivalent of three-tenths per lap. Maybe that can still the difference between various manufacturers."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.