Ferrari confirmed that the FIA have installed an additional sensor within their battery, but have refuted any power loss correlation. However Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene denied that an additional sensor is linked to their drop in performance versus Mercedes in the last few races.
“Our battery layout is quite complex. So we agreed with the request from the FIA to work together with them and to facilitate their work. We had the second sensor, but it doesn’t change in any case the performance of our car, Arrivabene told RTL in Japan.
It’s nothing to do with the speed in the straights, because in Singapore and Russia we were quicker. – We were ahead in Singapore and in Russia we were near to our competitors. In Singapore and Russia, we were more or less like Mercedes in the straights. Where we lost was in the slow-speed corners. We have the data to confirm it.”
Despite that, I find it strange that everybody knows about the second sensor. Because I said that our battery layout is quite complex, but it’s also the intellectual property of Ferrari. I hope that as everybody knows about the second sensor, in future everybody isn’t going to know about our project. That could be a serious matter.”
