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Not for the first time have Ferrari faced the wrath from their rival F1 teams regarding the issue of the legality of their engine; similar troubles have enveloped past seasons as well.
But as it stands at this point in time, Ferrari's rival teams have grouped together and decided to approach the elite sport's governing body, i.e., the FIA regarding the legality of the engine used by the Scuderia's scarlet cars.
So what exactly happened? It's no surprise to note that Ferrari's campaign during the first half of the season was uninspiring and fruitless, to say the least. Suffering poor car handling and lacking speed, the Italians failed to collect even a single victory in response to Mercedes' unprecedented rise.
Post the summer break, however, Ferrari picked themselves up and hit back at Mercedes' unchecked charge by claiming a hat-trick of wins, starting from Spa, then going onto Monza and Singapore.
Parallel to Ferrari's dramatic fightback, the rival teams smelled a rat and therefore, decided to approach the FIA, in a protest surrounding their engine composition.
Motorsport.com published the following in relation to the developing story:
Ferrari’s competitors wanted to know if they were free to pursue similar concepts or if the ideas fall foul of the regulations.
It is believed that the Ferrari engine advantage is worth up to 0.8 seconds at some tracks. It got to a stage where some top tier teams described the power advantage as ‘ludicrous’.
Furthermore, while engine upgrades significantly increased their straight line speed, it's also believed that the package fitted to the cars at Singapore significantly helped Vettel and Leclerc to contend with imperious corner speed, something that was lacking in the team's quiver of arrows.
In fact, so impressive and relentless has been Ferrari's resurgence that the team bagged five consecutive poles. So here's what is being reported about the team that irked the on-grid rivals:
Using oil in the intercooler, which Ferrari is thought to be alone in utilising, is permitted by the regulations. However, the system 'must not intentionally make use of the latent heat of vaporisation of any fluid with the exception of fuel for the normal purpose of combustion in the engine'.
The team's woes don't end there though. It's also believed that there are certain discrepancies regarding the cars' energy recovery system (ERS) that haven't gone down well with the opponents.
So, even as the teams have reached out to the FIA seeking immediate clarifications regarding the processes that Ferrari have carried out, the protesting teams haven't yet been offered any answers. Where the last year is concerned, then there was an intense scrutiny regarding Ferrari's performance particularly in the second half of the season, with the FIA suggesting it was 'satisfied' on all counts.
An official protest, however, regarding the team's current design elements appears unlikely. Moreover, the FIA are yet to deliver their verdict.
