F1 News: Ferrari's Engine Upgrade Has Red Bull On Edge
Ferrari's rumoured 30bhp increase in engine power as part of reliability upgrades for 2023 has raised concerns among Red Bull's team boss, Christian Horner. Despite Team Principal Frederic Vasseur's denial of any extra horsepower, Horner remains cautious due to Ferrari's poor reliability in 2022.
During an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Horner explained:
"The the engines are homologated, so theoretically there shouldn't be big horsepower gains. Also the fuel is homologated, so any reports of new fuels shouldn't be be permitted."
However, Horner is aware that Ferrari may have found a way to improve performance by addressing their reliability issues from last year. He stated:
"Ferrari had some reliability issues last year, so if they've managed to address that and through that been able to turn up their power, inevitably, they will see some form of progress now."
Red Bull needs to be mindful of Ferrari's potential to gain performance simply by running the engine at higher settings. The Red Bull team chief continued:
"It's a lot [of potential horsepower], so we have to be mindful of that. We saw them turn down the power after their failures last year. So we know they have the ability within their engine to turn it up more."
Despite not experiencing as many reliability issues as Ferrari, Red Bull did have some minor problems, but nothing to the extent of Ferrari's. Horner mentioned:
"We had some small reliability issues, but nothing to the magnitude of Ferrari."
As a result, Red Bull will need to keep a close eye on Ferrari's engine upgrades in 2023 to ensure they do not fall behind in the title challenge.
The 2023 F1 season will begin with the Bahrain Grand Prix on 3-5 March with the pre-season testing the week prior.