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There were two factors at play here: the first that the setup of its power unit, and especially its turbo size, was not ideal for the high-altitude races in Mexico and Brazil.
But beyond that was the confirmation from Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto after the final race that the Maranello squad had had to wind back engine performance in the latter stages of the year because of reliability concerns.
Some spectacular and costly engine failures earlier in the campaign – including Charles Leclerc’s blow-ups in Spain and Baku, plus Carlos Sainz’s fiery exit in Austria – had prompted the need to turn things down a bit while a solution was put in place.
In a short reference, Binotto said: “We had to slightly lower the power. Yes, we had to do it.”
But it has since emerged that Ferrari was able to go aggressive again in Abu Dhabi with its 066/7 engine with the team believing it had found the solution to those earlier reliability problems.
According to sources, the weak element in the power unit had been singled out as the spark plug within the pre-chamber.
This was the latest evolution of the TJI (Turbulent Jet Ignition) combustion syste …