A private settlement has been reached between the FIA and Ferrari over the power unit from last season, following an investigation into the engine.
Suspicions abound last year that Ferrari had found a way of navigating the fuel flow sensor restrictions in order to attain a power boost, which placed the Scuderia under scrutiny. However, they were never deemed to have breached the regulations and no protest was filed by any team.
However, the FIA issued a statement earlier today stating that an agreement had been reached with the team over the events of last season. The wording of the statement from the FIA is opaque and does not state whether the power unit had complied with the regulations in full or not.
“The FIA announces that, after thorough technical investigations, it has concluded its analysis of the operation of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 Power Unit and reached a settlement with the team,” read the statement.
“The specifics of the agreement will remain between the parties. The FIA and Scuderia Ferrari have agreed to a number of technical commitments that will improve the monitoring of all Formula 1 Power Units for forthcoming championship seasons as well as assist the FIA in other regulatory duties in Formula 1 and in its research activities on carbon emissions and sustainable fuels.”
Throughout the course of last year, there were multiple technical directives issued in regards to the fuel flow sensors. It was after these were issued that the straight-line pace of the Ferrari began to wane.
Ferrari denied multiple times last year that their power unit was in breach of regulations, with team principal Mattia Binotto stating (in an interview with Motorsport.com)
“If I look at the whole season, we have been one of the most checked teams, that was before or after the technical directives,”
he said at the end of last year.
“And when you got a performance advantage, and certainly we got it during the whole season, we have been the most checked.”
“Being checked I think it’s normal, it is somehow good because through the checks you are proving your legality. After the technical directives, the number of checks on our cars have multiplied. The reviews have been shown to FIA the details have been discussed.
“So whatever could have been done through collaboration with FIA has been done. We have never changed our way of operating the engine for the last part of the season, showing that somehow our power unit has full legality.”