Haas boss Guenther Steiner calls the Ferrari engine the best engine on the grid after seeing themselves at a better place in Bahrain.
The performative hit taken by Ferrari in 2019 affected them and their customers, Alfa Romeo and Haas, for two years. Now, with a considerable boost in the Ferrari engine during the second part of 2021, both teams seemed to have to get better this year.
From being at the end of the grid last year, Haas brought a P7 in qualifying with Kevin Magnussen. On the other hand, Mick Schumacher also reached Q2 and settled with P12.
Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo got a P6 with Valtteri Bottas, and rookie Guanyu Zhou got P15. At the same time, Ferarri got an overwhelmingly good result on Saturday, with pole position in Charles Leclerc’s name and Carlos Sainz getting P3.
Seeing such a boost in performances among all the Ferrari powered cars, Haas boss Guenther Steiner claims that the engine manufactured by the Italian team is the best on the grid.
🚨| It has been suggested that Ferrari’s engine power advantage could be worth as much as two tenths of a second per lap over the rest of the grid. #F1
— LC (@LappedCars) March 20, 2022
“I think the Ferrari engine is now the best engine,” Steiner said. “I honestly think that and that gives a lot of credit to them because they were in the same position as us. They had to take a lot of s**t from people about it.”
“And they just got back, did their homework and came back with something very good.”
Also read: Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz expect Mercedes to rise back to the top soon enough
Valtteri Bottas believes in Ferrari engine superiority
Bottas joined Alfa Romeo from Mercedes this year. Personally driving a car on a Ferrari engine made him admit that the Maranello based outfit has made massive development this year.
INSIGHTS ON ENGINE POWER
Looking at the speed profile during straights:
-In the first part of each straight the slope is FER>RB>MER, indicating superior #Ferrari power
-RB shows the lowest slope reduction in the straight end->lower drag
-MER has both lower power AND higher drag pic.twitter.com/OB6qZ1ohtx— F1 Data Analysis (@F1DataAnalysis) March 19, 2022
“I think Ferrari has done a good job, they’ve definitely made a step forward from last year,” Bottas said. “So that is an improvement, no doubt.”
Now, ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, all three teams are in contention to get points. Ferrari, in fact, is going for a win with both cars starting from the first two rows.
Also read: Kevin Magnussen is happy with the rollercoaster qualifying but reckons, even more, was possible
