Ferrari trades in tokens for engine upgrade in Russia
- Published on 25 Apr 2016 08:04
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- By: Rob Veenstra
Ferrari will bid to breathe life into its 2016 championship charge by unveiling a key engine upgrade for Russia next weekend. Germany's Auto Bild reports that the Maranello team will trade in three of its in-season development 'tokens' following reliability problems in Australia and Bahrain and a troubled race in China.
It has left Sebastian Vettel just fourth overall in the drivers' standings, behind not only the two Mercedes but also Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. "Ferrari tried to argue that the changes were due to reliability only, but instead the team will have only six tokens remaining this season," the report revealed.
In comparison, Mercedes has 13 tokens left, Honda 14 and Renault an almost full compliment of 25 tokens. German Vettel said: "We have to recognise that Mercedes has done a really good job. For us, the first races were mixed but I hope we can put them under some more pressure from now on." (GMM)
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Replies (7)
Login to replymclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
That's a lot of tokens on the engine already, this better be worth it or they can kiss their only chance goodbye and with that any point of watching these otherwise boring merc podiums for the rest of us.
Vet5
Posts: 225
How far behind are Ferrari from Merc? is it not something like 4 tenths in qualifying and anywhere between 0-200 tenths in race? If they prove this new upgrade is good we might see them start to dominate. They have a very unique engine design compared to the others so they have maybe found the key to unlocking the potential from these hybrid engines, saying that so did McLaren and that hasn't worked very well. Somebody needs to overtake merc in the standings and podiums.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I'd say Ferrari is very close to Mercedes. I hardly see them dominating this season, but they could definitely catch Mercedes if the upgrade pays off. And its quite a good thing to upgrade this early, they might catch the others off-guard. The PU is however not that unique: its said to be very similar to what Honda has developed, even if its more powerful and sliiiightly larger, meaning its smaller than Mercedes' unit and slightly less powerful. A pretty good combination, I just hope reliability wont continue to plague them.
Vet5
Posts: 225
Very true! I feel Ferrari will push Mercedes this year, I def chose the wrong wording when it comes to 'dominate' but would be amazing to see them win every race from now till November, push merc back behind redbull and things will get exciting.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It would be awesome to see Ferrari on top again. Its been very close as of late, and I only think it will get closer. Ferrari are much stronger in the corners currently, and way better in dirty air, so tracks like Monaco, Suzuka, Monza, Singapore, Malaysia and a few others will benefit them. And people said this season would become boring! ;)
RacetoWin
Posts: 95
Teams should also have chassis tokens, with the wining constructor getting less than the rest.
you can also allow tokens to be sold to other teams, so more budgeted teams would get money from larger teams for extra tokens.
this would make the token system an economy within F1.
Vet5
Posts: 225
That would be good because the likes of Sauber and Manor are falling back due to not having the cash to upgrade the chassis. Are they not getting rid of the token system for 2017 though? This is where things will go wrong and carry on the way it is, Merc, Ferrari and RB will through as much cash as possible to produce a championship winning car.