Do you remember the 2023 Bahrain GP, the season opener? Charles Leclerc was running comfortably in a high-point-scoring position when the car suddenly came to a stop. It was an engine failure. And then came the Brazilian GP, where a hydraulic failure meant Leclerc retired during the formation lap. Ferrari’s reliability has been all over the place and now Scuderia’s engineer has come out to blame the FIA regulations for the poor performance. 

Mercedes clinched the P2 in Constructors during the 2023 season by only 3 points from Ferrari. One can only imagine how easy it might’ve been if the Ferrari was reliable and did not miss out on the point-scoring opportunities that they did. Another reason for the poor performance is the engine freeze by the governing body, which stops the teams from enhancing the performance of the engine.

Teams can only make changes to the engine to improve the reliability of it. The Ferrari engine was neither the most reliable nor the most powerful. That is not to say that it was only the power unit that led the team down, the chassis, strategic errors, and driver errors also had a part to play in it. However, the engine is the heart of a car, around which everything else is built. 

Enrico Gualtieri, Director of the Ferrari Power Unit, explained how Ferrari has worked on the reliability of the 2024 engine. According to Formu1a.uno, he said, “I would say that we have modified and changed some components for reliability reasons, we were not perfect last season and for sure we try to improve further in the areas where we were still weak last year but it is a job we do every year.”

Explaining how the regulations refrained the team from working on performance aspects, he added, “The regulation does not allow you to work on performance elements on the other hand it can always be optimized to extract the maximum performance from the potential of the engine.” 

Read More: Charles Leclerc Sets Glaring Goal for 2024 as Lewis Hamilton Threatens Coveted Position

Hopefully, Ferrari’s reliability this season will be better and in combination with the new chassis, will close the gap to Red Bull or even challenge them for the title.

“The beginning of the end”: Frederic Vasseur on Ferrari’s title challenge 

Frederic Vasseur was brought into the Italian stable to lead the Scuderia back to winning. After making structural changes to the hierarchy, poaching engineers from top teams, and now signing Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari looks set for a revolution and getting the glory back to Maranello. Frederic Vasseur was asked if Ferrari has everything to challenge for the title in 2024 or if the project is still an evolution in progress.

Frederic Vasseur said, “If you start being happy with what you have, you’re dead. It is essential to have a mindset focused on progressive improvement and always work on your weaknesses. We have several people who are starting to join the team during this period, day by day, I believe we are strengthening, making progress. But don’t expect me to say tomorrow that we’re there, that I’m happy with the situation. If you start having this kind of approach, I think it’s the beginning of the end.”

Watch this Story: Charles Leclerc’s Hopeful Mission: Reviving Ferrari Despite Massive Gap!