Ferrari has not raised query to FIA over Mercedes F1 engine

It emerged ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix that Red Bull had made a query to the governing body regarding the sensors of the Mercedes power unit that record the engine’s inlet plenum temperatures.

Red Bull is believed to suspect Mercedes of being able to make recent gains by super-cooling air through its engine plenum in a bid to boost power. F1’s regulations state that “engine plenum air temperature must be more than ten degrees centigrade above ambient temperature.”

The FIA uses sensors to police this as an average over a lap and ensure the teams are running in compliance.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was coy about the matter when asked to clarify the purpose of the query at Zandvoort.

“As is the nature with all technical clarifications, they go continually between all the teams, and those clarifications are usually to ascertain if something is in the eyes of the governing body acceptable as a solution,” Horner said.

“And then, of course, if it is you follow suit. We’ve had numerous of those this year with our car and I think it’s something not unique to Red Bull and this topic certainly isn’t unique to Red Bull.

“But obviously that dialogue between the engineers within their forums as well, within the technical working groups, it’s an ongoing process. I’m sure it doesn’t come as any great surprise.”

Toto Wolff said Mercedes ‘loves’ that its main championship rival was devoting time to querying its engine, adding that a potential “distraction for the other team is good”.

But Wolff dismissed the notion of his team having a “special solution” to enhance its engine performance.

“I would wish we have some kind of special solution, but it’s the modus operandi in Formula 1, business as usual,” he said.

“Queries are being taken to the FIA, questions are being asked. It’s completely normal.”

Horner indicated that Honda was not the only power unit manufacturer to lodge a query to the FIA.

Although Ferrari team principal Binotto revealed he discussed the topic with Red Bull, he stressed that no official query was ever raised by the Scuderia.

“No, we didn’t,” Binotto said when asked if Ferrari joined Red Bull in querying Mercedes power unit.

“I think, as all teams, all constructors, we are always trying to understand what our opponents are doing. We analyse the images and look at the GPS data.

“We had some question marks and we discussed the point with Red Bull. I discussed it with Christian Horner, but we, as Ferrari, have not raised any specific questions to the FIA, so far at least.”