Alfa Romeo team boss Frédéric Vasseur expects Ferrari’s updated 2021 power unit to have recovered “a large part” of the deficit it faced last year.
The significant drop in performance of Ferrari’s engine in 2020 on the back of several technical directives released by the FIA in 2019 and the ensuing scrutiny by F1’s governing body severely impacted the performance of the Scuderia and its customer teams, Alfa Romeo and Haas.
However, Ferrari’s engine department has spared no effort in the past months to improve the performance of its power unit.
Scuderia boss Mattia Binotto has repeatedly said that the new engine has performed well on the dyno at Maranello, and Vasseur is confident Alfa can reap the benefits of the unit’s gains.
“The collaboration with Ferrari is, I think, going very well,” said the Frenchman during the launch on Friday of Alfa’s new C41.
“We had a strong meeting, a long meeting over the winter to cover the points of last year, when perhaps we didn’t do the perfect job.
“We are on a good path. I think that on their side, they will recover probably a large part of the issue that we had last year, and collaboration is getting better and better.
“We won’t be taking some of their car, perhaps one or two elements, but not much more. But I think it’s not the key point of the collaboration.
“The key point of the collaboration is to be convinced that we can learn from each other. In the scope of the regulations, we have to play with this, and we have to do the best job that we can do.”
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Read also: All efforts made on C41 to recover lost downforce – Monchaux
Asked about his team’s prospects for 2021, Vasseur was reluctant to set any specific targets but underscored the need to do better than in 2020.
“I think the philosophy upon which the team is based remains the same – we have to do a better job tomorrow than we are doing today,” he said.
“We finished last season in P8, so we have to target a better result in 2021.To do so, we have to keep improving in each department, trackside and back at HQ.”
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