Ferrari encouraged by 2017 power unit development

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Ferrari as making good progress with the development of its 2017 power unit, according to head of power unit operations Luigi Fraboni.

New regulations in 2017 will allow engine manufacturers to develop their power units without the limitations of development tokens. Previously, manufacturers could only spend 32 tokens updating their power units, with certain components costing a different amount of tokens to modify.

With such restrictions removed, Fraboni says the fact Ferrari was the first manufacturer to spend all of its power unit tokens this year highlights how aggressive it can be at developing its engine.

"You know, as Ferrari, we are in favour of not having the tokens, this for us is a good thing," Fraboni said. "Of course next year you will have still the four power units so we need to follow the rule, but not have the tokens will give you more flexibility on making you plan and also on changes during the season.

"On our side, as you know, we already used the tokens this year so this means that we had quite a strong evolution during the season and so not having this this limit for next season is good and at the moment the development of the power unit for 2017 is proceeding quite well."

Ferrari spent its final power unit tokens on an upgrade at the Italian Grand Prix, while it was also the most proactive manufacturer over the winter ahead of the 2016 season, spending 23 tokens compared to 19 for Mercedes, 18 for Honda and seven for Renault.

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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.