Ferrari set for power boost in second half of the season with ‘significant’ engine upgrade

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will receive a boost later this year, after Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto revealed the Italian team will bring a "significant" power unit development during the second half of the season…

Formula 1 engine manufacturers are restricted to one upgrade of each component per year, as per the regulations, and it has emerged that Ferrari have been running a power unit with some 2020-spec parts this season.

It remains unclear when the new PU will be introduced, but it is believed it will be after Ferrari’s home Grand Prix in Monza. With both Sainz and Leclerc already on their third and final engines, the duo will almost certainly incur grid penalties – and thus the team will likely look to time the switch with the new unit.

READ MORE: The biggest shock, their top three drivers, and a bold prediction – Our writers on the first half of the 2021 season

Speaking to selected media before the team went on their mandatory two-week summer shutdown, Binotto said: “We will bring a power unit development. To clarify the regulations for 2021, you may have a brand new power unit in 2021. It means you can bring an update in all components of the power unit – the ICE, turbo, MGU-H, batteries, MGU-K etc.

“What we made at the start of the season, we didn’t complete the entire power unit development so there are still components which are the ones of last year. We will bring an evolution of those ones. That will be for us, a significant step for the end of the season. But more important for us, it will be experience in view of 2022.”

Ferrari are currently third in the constructors’ championship, level on points with McLaren with 12 Grands Prix still to go. Binotto said the focus is to continue to improve everywhere – and if they do that, he believes they can hold on to that position.

“The objective is to improve in all the areas,” he said. “If we are capable of doing that, continuously improving, I think the outcome will be third.

“Being third is certainly a positive objective. We are third at the moment, equal points but we are third. Team is doing well and we are improving. I think we can achieve it, that’s no question. But it has to be a consequence of us improving in all areas.”

Ferrari's fight for P3 resumes with the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.

READ MORE: Sainz says he'll be even stronger in second half of 2021 as he admits he's yet to maximise a weekend for Ferrari