AUGUST 18, 2023

Balance of Performance in not right for F1

Vasseur makes it clear Balance of Performance in not right for F1.

By Luis Vasconcelos
The FIA's opening to allow Alpine to catch up its rivals in the Power Unit front, after analysis done by its technical department showed there's a gap of over two per cent in the power output of the three stronger manufacturers: Honda, Mercedes and Ferrari: when compared to the French V6, led the team now led by Bruno Famin to propose they would get a better fuel flow rate for the Internal Combustion Engine, to recover from their disadvantage.
A proposal that was quickly rebuffed by all manufacturer's representatives during the Spa-Francorchamps's meeting of the Formula One Commission, with the matter being sent to the Power Unit Advisory Committee for further analysis. Asked about the reasons for this quick rebuff of Alpine's request, Ferrari Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur reminded us that, when we decided to freeze the engine, we considered that in exceptional circumstances we could try to find a way to support the guy who would be completely out of the range.
But he then pointed out that, I'm not sure that Renault is so far away, because we don't have the same numbers as Renault has showed to the FIA. And it's the first time that my engineers are pessimistic compared to the other ones... he added, hinting that the Italian engineers believe Alpine is underselling its real performance to try and gain an advantage.
Whatever the situation, Vasseur has made it clear that,if we have to do something, it can't be adjusting their fuel flow. We have to have the same approach that we have with the windtunnel allocation. The guy who finishes the Constructors' Championship in P10 is given more time into the windtunnel; it is not that he is allowed to run its cars team kilos lighter than the rest of us, right? You're not given performance, you're given the means to get that performance and that's a completely different thing.
For the Frenchman, if you allow the team, or the PU manufacturer, to develop that's fair and you're not gifting him an advantage, because if we do that, then it would be the start of the balance of performance and that would be the end of Formula 1. This is the pinnacle of motor racing and only the best should compete at this level, so if you're given more wind tunnel time, more CFD capacity, more dyno time or whatever, you're already being given the means to improve your chassis or your Power Unit more than the others and then you have to be competent enough to make the best out of that extra time and capacity you're handed, to catch up with the best ones. Anything else, simply isn't Formula 1, the Ferrari boss concluded.