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Ferrari have had a noticeable advantage in the last three races leaving everyone else scrambling to catch up.
There are many raised eyebrows around the Formula One paddock at the moment regarding Ferrari's new found power and speed output in their cars. This has happened recently and was not something that was expected. The top teams are closely matched so when something changes questions and rumors start to happen. Is it legal would be the first one that is being asked and no one is quite sure.
There are three possibilities that could be the reason for Ferrari's new found speed. The battery is generating more than the allowed kilo wattage set in place by the FIA guidelines. If this is the case they will be found out as that is not something you could hide. Surely it has to be something else as that would be a negative and only short lived for Ferrari. After two aces the racing stewards would have picked that up.
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Another theory which is plausible as they are a works team meaning they supply and build their own engines so they have found something others haven't. A strong possibility is that the engine stores the fuel and supplies it as required during the mandatory sensors as required increasing performance. The other theory is that he engine is burning extra oil for extra performance benefits. Whatever they are doing it has got the other teams all scrambling.
There is a huge difference and advantage the works teams have like Mercedes,Ferrari and Renault over everyone else. They have an entire car plant with massive teams doing research and development and use the Formula One team as a testing ground.
Mercedes announced over the last few days that they would be supplying engines to McLaren from 2021 as they currently supply Williams and Race Point already. It may seem odd that you give competitors your engines, but Mercedes gets the data from those teams which will ultimately benefit them developing and improving what they currently have.
Ferrari has it's engines in competitors as well supplying Haas and Alfa Romeo and they have found something that none of the other teams have seen yet. They are all looking now though and has many engineers head scratching wondering if it is legal or not. When a team suddenly finds so much extra speed there will be shouts of foul play at some point. Hamilton mentioned that the speed difference is massive and is like being overtaken by a jet.
I think this is great for racing as it means that technology is moving forward yet again as obviously Ferrari have uncovered something new. What happens in Formula One trickles back to the cars on the road at some point via the works teams.
The new FIA rules that are being discussed and may be pushed through is that the current engine manufacturers are going to have to share technical information to new engine manufacturers that the FIA is trying to attract. This is proposed to happen by 2021 and could be the reason why Mercedes tied up McLaren as that is one less competitor engine manufacturer. I can't see that going down too well as there is so much invested between Ferrari,Honda,Renault and Mercedes already and will not want to be forced to share with outsiders.
