This year proved to be comparatively a comeback for Ferrari as they managed to gain momentum towards the second half of the season ultimately securing third in the constructors' championship. While 2020 was a disappointing season for the Maranello-based team with a sixth-place finish in the constructors' championship, the team's significant improvement in 2021 leaves them in an optimum spot heading into the 2022 season. 

With new regulations set to take place in F1 next year, there will be opportunities for the teams to use the new rules to their advantage, potentially adding more competition on track with more close battles amongst them throughout the season. Teams like Ferrari have been able to gain a heads up by introducing some engine elements that were used in their 2021 hybrid engine that will be used in the 2022 power unit.  

Ferrari team Principal Mattia Binotto discussed the substantial amount of innovation that he and the team have put into the new power unit that will be used for the 2022 season. 

“If I look at the 2022 car, and the 2022 power unit, believe me there is a lot of innovation in it,” he explained.

“I think that the way that the entire engineering team has faced the new design, the new project, and the 2022 regulations, which were a big discontinuity, was certainly with a more open mind than before,” Binotto said.

“I can myself measure it by looking at the car itself, the way it's progressing, and certainly with the amount of innovation we put in it.”

Speaking directly to motorsport.com, Binotto explained the differences in detail between the current power unit and the new one that will be used in 2022.  

“On the power unit, it is significantly different to the current one except the hybrid,” he said.

“For the hybrid, we introduced it in 2021, as we anticipated what would have been the 2022 rules” He explained.

“There will be some changes to the hybrid system for 2022, first for regulations, because more sensors are required from the FIA in all the systems for better policing. But the overall system is very similar to the one we've got and the one we raced at the end of the season.

“But the rest, especially on the internal combustion engine, I have to say is significantly different. We've got a new fuel, which is the 10 percent ethanol, which somehow changed a lot the combustion. We are all losing more or less 20 horsepower, which means somehow that the combustion itself is quite changed. So there were a lot of opportunities in development on the power unit and we changed it quite a lot.”

Binotto also described the changes the team made to the 2022 chassis and reiterated how drastic the overall design is compared to its 2021 predecessor.

“I think that the way we approached the exercise was really open minded. And when looking at the car concept, what was possible or not, it is not only the external shapes but whatever you could have done under the bodywork, in terms of layout, in terms of suspension design in terms of full architecture, including as well the powerunit and its architecture.”

“I think that the team made significant innovations and the overall design that we are now finalising is quite different to the 2021 project.”