Ferrari drivers say ‘quali mode’ ban “can only be positive” for them

2020 Spanish Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

The Ferrari drivers say the FIA’s planned ban on high-performance qualifying engine modes won’t affect them but could present problems for their rivals.

As RaceFans revealed yesterday, the sport’s governing body intends to force teams to use the same engine modes in qualifying and the race. They hope to enforce the restriction from the next round of the championship at Spa-Francorchamps.

Charles Leclerc said the restriction can only help Ferrari.

“To be honest I don’t think it will affect us so much, so I think it can only be positive for us,” he said.

“How much it will be beneficial it’s still to see. But for us I can say that we don’t have anything different from quali to the race so for us I don’t think it will change anything.”

Sebastian Vettel agreed the restriction is more likely to affect Ferrari’s rivals.

“As Charles says it doesn’t affect us this season so let’s wait and see what happens,” he said. “I think it always depends what you are able to pull off.

Why the FIA told teams it will ban ‘quali modes’ after this weekend’s race
“I guess if you have something developed on your engine that you can normally run a certain amount of mileage with more power or more stress on the engine it’s probably not the best news. But from where we are right now as Charles says it doesn’t affect us.”

Ferrari’s engine customers should also stand to benefit from the change. Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen said his team “don’t have any” quali modes so the change “makes no difference” to them, but they can see how much of an advantage their rivals gain in qualifying.

“Obviously we can see that if you take practice or something what happens then in the qualifying there seems to take quite a big hit behind the others, they seem to have a lot of straight-line speed suddenly,” said Raikkonen.

“But that’s out of our hands. We have what we have and we try to make the best out of it so we’ll see what comes out.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 F1 season

Browse all 2020 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

16 comments on “Ferrari drivers say ‘quali mode’ ban “can only be positive” for them”

  1. So, is this all MaFIAt’s doing again?

    Seems too convenient tp be a coincidence

  2. Ferrari today: This can only be good for us!

    Ferrari 2 weeks from Saturday: 5 of 6 cars cannot break 300 km/h through the speed trap.

    1. They are only crying because of their illegal fuel flow/burn rates were exposed…. Now they are in a cheeky way, saying on your face mercedes, now we are taking away your perfectly legal and super reliable engine’s quali boost performance… If mercedes’ engine runs according to the letter of the rules… what is wrong with teams?

      FIA should reveal Ferrari’s fuel flow measurement bypass cheat, because you cant say you didnt prove they cheated then say we are adding another fuel flow sensor that is encrypted and its measurement timing will be random and secret so people cant bypass it…

  3. Unless I am mistaken the Merc engine has the same modes available in both Quali and the race? They just don’t use the Quali mode in the race. This ruling appears to suggest that engines have some mode that is only available via a change in the pits before Quali.
    All of the same Strat modes are available during both race and Quali or am I missing something?

    1. I’m pretty sure the new rule interpretation means “no engine mode changes the whole weekend”

  4. Ferrari International Assistance

    1. 100% CORRECT.

  5. its amazing the fia and ferrari aren’t even trying to hide the fact that this rule change is all about helping ferrari. Its a joke.

    1. It’s about hurting Mercedes, not helping Ferrari. Every non Mercedes PU should benefit from it if it works as intended, amongst them Ferrari and Red Bull.

      1. Arben, the reason why most believe this is about helping Ferrari is that, according to Kimi, Ferrari doesn’t have an effective qualifying mode now.

        Even if you say that the intention is to “hurt Mercedes”, it will still hurt Renault and Honda in qualifying trim given they’ve both got more effective qualifying modes than Ferrari does. Ferrari is the only manufacturer which has nothing to lose and everything to gain by this change, as all of their rivals are having their performance in qualifying reduced whilst Ferrari doesn’t see any change in their performance.

        1. If red bull’s qualifying mode leaves them 1 sec behind mercedes I don’t think they have much to lose either, sounds like a fail quali mode.

  6. it is obvious why this ban happens this year and not last year when Ferrari engine was the best. Cheating from FIA to help Ferrari at the highest order!

  7. Ferrari: now we can’t cheat we don’t have any qualifying modes any more.
    FIA: Well that isnt fair, we shall ban them we don’t want to make Ferrari look bad.

  8. They already used their illegal engine mode all season, banked an illegal WCC result and got away scot free. Of course it’s positive for them if teams actually operating legally are penalised. Pathetic.

  9. LOL But of course it’s only positive for them! Didn’t Fred Vasseur (or someone in the Alfa Romeo team) just say that Ferrari engines in their Alfas dont have a quali mode?

  10. Looks more like there is another case like Ferrari and FIA are done dragging it out.

Comments are closed.