Racing
© fuji.tim
Ferrari is waiting for FIA approval to introduce an upgraded 067/6 power unit and new Shell fuel at the Austrian Grand Prix, a package the team hopes will finally cut into its engine deficit to Mercedes and turn Barcelona’s breakthrough into something more repeatable.
The revised unit is set to be Ferrari’s third power unit of the season and would arrive under the FIA’s ADUO development allowance. Multiple reports put the expected gain at roughly 15 PS, although Ferrari’s progress is tied to two changes at once: the permitted engine modifications and a newly homologated fuel developed with Shell’s laboratory in Hamburg, making it difficult to separate one benefit from the other.
The technical direction is aimed at extracting more from Ferrari’s unusual high-temperature concept. The updated configuration continues its steel-alloy cylinder-head approach and is reported to raise intercooler-entry temperatures from already above 100C to more than 115C. That is far beyond the conventional 60-70C range used in more traditional designs, with Ferrari chasing a more efficient combustion process and more usable power.
That matters because Ferrari believes the rest of the car has already taken a decisive step. Lewis Hamilton’s win in Barcelona ended Mercedes’ perfect six-race start to the season and reinforced the view inside Maranello that the SF-26 now has the chassis to fight at the front. Ferrari’s second aerodynamic package of the year, introduced in Spain after the earlier Miami update, was credited with cutting drag, adding downforce and giving the car the best tyre management on the grid.
Lando Norris, the reigning world champion, underlined that threat after Spain. “We're lucky that Ferrari doesn't have a better engine at the minute. If they had a better engine, they're dominating,” he said. Norris added that Ferrari was “the class of the field in terms of cornering performance at the minute” and warned: “If they make improvements on the engine side, then they'll embarrass everyone.”
Austria is not a straightforward reset for Ferrari, though, because the team is still working to understand the electronics problem that struck Charles Leclerc late in Barcelona. The failure disabled his hydraulic system and left him without power steering, brake-by-wire and parts of the car’s active aerodynamics. Ferrari has not ruled out a link to Leclerc’s Monaco crash at Antony-Noghes as it continues to investigate the cause.
That leaves Spielberg as Ferrari’s first real test of whether its recovery is durable. If the FIA clears the new power unit and the gain appears on track, Ferrari will have a chance to show that its first win in 34 races was not a one-off and that the SF-26 can sustain pressure on championship-leading Mercedes before Red Bull rolls out its own major upgrade at its home race.