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MANAMA: Ferrari will support the freeze on Formula One engine regulations from 2022, team principal Mattia Binotto said on Thursday (Nov 26), which would allow Red Bull to use its Honda power units even after the Japanese manufacturer quit the sport.
Honda, which exclusively supplies Red Bull and sister team AlphaTauri, will withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 2021 season, leaving the two teams in search of a new supply.
Red Bull’s preferred option is to acquire the intellectual property of the Honda power unit and continue to use it for its two teams. But they have said it would only be financially viable if costly engine development was frozen.
Ferrari had opposed the freeze engine move even as rivals Mercedes, who have won every championship since the current engine rules were introduced in 2014, have backed it.
But after meetings in recent days with the sport’s commercial rights holder and the ruling FIA, Binotto said the Italian manufacturer had changed its mind whenever the introduction of a new power unit, the details of which have yet to be released. resolved, it is brought forward a year later. 2026 to 2025.
“As Ferrari, we understand the situation,” Binotto told reporters at the Bahrain Grand Prix in a video conference from Ferrari headquarters in Maranello.
“We are … in solidarity in trying to anticipate in one season, one year, the engine freeze. That will also mean trying to anticipate until 2025 the new regulations for power units.”
Renault had also objected to an engine freeze. As the manufacturer supplying the fewest teams, they would have been forced to supply former champions Red Bull and AlphaTauri. His latest position on the engine freeze was not immediately clear.
Binotto, whose team has been suffering from a lack of horsepower this season with its power unit considered the weakest of the four manufacturers, said the sport was discussing implementing a mechanism that would allow any engine manufacturer lacking performance at the time of freeze to catch up.
“I think those details will be important,” he added.
