Ferrari has conceded for the first time that technical clarifications issued by the FIA has had an impact on its engine performance in the 2020 Formula 1 season.
Ferrari held a power advantage over its rivals last year, particularly on single-lap pace, but was the subject of finger-pointing by opponents during the closing stages of the campaign.
The FIA issued Technical Directives in a bid to clarify the regulations and in both pre-season testing in Spain and the double-header in Austria Ferrari lacked overall straight-line speed.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has previously indicated that the draggy nature of the SF1000 was partly responsible, estimating that 70 per cent of its lap time deficit was coming on the straights.
Customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas have also lacked pace this season, particularly in qualifying, and have scored just two points.
“Certainly I think that regulations are very difficult and complex,” said Binotto on Friday.
“I think there are areas of regulations on the power unit where maybe clarifications are still required, it’s an ongoing process, which has always existed in the past and will exist in the future.
“Since last year a lot of TDs have been released, eventually clarifying some of the areas of regulations, I think it through those TDs we had to adapt ourselves.
“I don’t think it is only the case Ferrari, because looking at the power output of this season I think most manufacturers somehow had to adapt themselves but certainly as Ferrari we had to adapt and as a simple output of that we lost some of the performance we had.
“I think that now obviously we’ve got a clearer situation in some areas of the regulations and that will continue if required for the future.”
Ferrari opted not to upgrade its power unit between the cancelled Australian Grand Prix and eventual season-opener in Austria, and its specification is now locked in for the rest of 2020 after updated regulations put a freeze on development.
“The engine or power unit development is an ongoing process that we have never stopped since 2012, when we started developing those engines, now it is a long time we were developing them,” he said.
“We were doing development as well for this season that we will not be able to introduce during the season itself due to the long shutdown period which has not been the case for all the power unit manufacturers.
“We will still develop and we try to somehow develop as much as we can by the start of next season.
“I think there are still areas of the regulations that need to be clarified and hopefully that may be so that in the future there is sufficient clarity to make sure we have all the same understanding.”
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