Third place Red Bull Powertrains in engine performance in 2022

“Aerodynamics for people who can’t build an engine,” is the famous quote from Enzo Ferrari. He would turn his grave if he had the 2022 stats. F1Maximum.nl Digging in the data, and it turns out: Ferrari has proven to be by far the least reliable team when it comes to engines. Renault has often been priced negatively this year. Red Bull Racing In fact, Honda and Mercedes have produced an engine you can count on.

On the basis of information throughout the year, we look at the resource that presented the least reliable engine. Then of course you immediately think of Ferrari, because Charles Leclerc has regularly caught the eye this year when large plumes of white smoke jumped from his red Ferrari. The numbers confirm that Ferrari has already seen the most outages, although there are more cars on the grid with Ferrari engines.

For the sake of completeness, we also show a relative number. why? Because the risk of the driver having problems with the engine due to wear, for example, is present in every resource. The probability of a failed engine is never zero, and when you have six drivers cruising around, the chance of you getting a bit lucky is just a little bit higher. Thus, the relative amount of dropouts per driver says something about reliability.

What would Enzo Ferrari think of this?

Ferrari, the man who firmly believes the engine is the heart of the car, probably couldn’t have seen 2022 dry. No less than a dozen times the Ferrari-powered driver did not see the finish line due to material flaws. Throughout the season, there have been suggestions that Ferrari has been using its engine with too much power. As a result, they had the advantage of speed, but also suffered from reliability problems.

We saw the first signs of this in Saudi Arabia, although Ferrari may have thought the fault in the Valtteri Bottas’ cooling system was caused by the Middle Eastern climate. So in the second race, he was already beaten. Three races later, in Miami, another Alfa Romeo was injured, and now it was Bottas’s teammate Zhou Guanyu’s turn.

Things went from bad to worse with part of the season in which six engines stopped running at Ferrari in four games. In Spain, Leclerc’s turbo failed, while Zhou was forced to score a second consecutive DNF after losing his power. After a race, in Monaco, Kevin Magnussen lost water pressure on his Ferrari power unit, but the poison cup had to be emptied.

In Azerbaijan, Leclerc once again saw a stunning retirement from P1 and alarm bells started ringing with Mattia Binotto. The championship fight will be tough if you don’t reach the finish in every third or fourth race. Incidentally, the Magnussen engine also stopped in Azerbaijan – two races in a row, so – while Mick Schumacher did not finish the race in Canada.

Ferrari will recover

It is almost inevitable that Ferrari will start ordering less material after that difficult first half of the year. From Austria, the number of dropouts dropped significantly, although Sainz still had to jump out of a burning Ferrari there. Next, we only see a broken engine for Zhou in France, a fuel system failure for Bottas in Hungary and a PU failure for Bottas in the Netherlands.

All Ferrari drivers are doing well now in four races in a row. Additionally, Leclerc took the grid penalty in the US for introducing new engine parts. Perhaps the Italian team did this with a goal of 2023. Next year they undoubtedly hope to continue the championship battle, and you just need a fast and powerful engine for that.

Alonso’s criticism of the Alps is justified

Fernando Alonso said it all year long: “I lost fifty points because we don’t have the reliability in the standings.” Whether there are fifty is debatable. It is clear that Renault also did not develop an impeccable engine. As for the number of motorcyclists driving, Alonso and teammate Esteban Ocon have so far had the most average failures.

Malheur also started in Saudi Arabia at the French racing stable. A problem with the water pump ended the Grand Prix at the time, much to the chagrin of the experienced Spaniard. After that, Alpine ran well in seven consecutive races, a very honorable streak. However, this series must also come to an end.

Ocon failed to finish the race in Britain due to a failed fuel pump, and in a later race in Austria, Alonso suffered electrical problems. With Alonso’s other water pressure issue in Italy, and a double DNF for the Alpine duo in Singapore, the total comes to six. The latest retirements have taken a hit in Singapore in particular, as the gentlemen are on their way to a well-deserved double finish.

Red Bull’s comeback

Then it was Red Bull’s turn, and we can talk about a real comeback. Max Verstappen’s disappointment after two retirements in the first three big races was too big. He himself said he needs about two seasons to close the gap to title contender Leclerc. In Bahrain, the season opener, Red Bull Powertrains lost at least three drivers.

Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez fell silent just before the end of the race after the fuel pressure dropped. The Austrian racing stable spoke of a vacuum in the fuel system, a problem that could either be solved. Pierre Gasly had to throw in the towel earlier in this race.

After one race, it was Yuki Tsunoda’s turn, who experienced engine problems in Saudi Arabia for the first and last time that year. After one race, Verstappen made a spectacular stop, with plenty of smoke, in Albert Park after a fuel leak. This was spot on: since then, there have been no engine problems for both the Red Bull drivers and the AlphaTauri drivers.

Mercedes takes the cake

The constructors’ championship won’t go to Mercedes this year, but the award for the most reliable engine will. The Germans had a perfect record, right up to the Italian Grand Prix. There, two Aston Martins, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, retired in one race due to engine problems. When something happens to you, it can get toughAs they say in England: Daniel Ricciardo pulled out too. The Australian experienced an oil spill.

So we also immediately got the engine failures coming from the factory in Brixworth. On average, Mercedes-powered drivers experience fewer than one outage over an entire year, with the two Mercedes drivers not having engine problems at once. Mercedes seems to have lost its speed because of that, because they are no longer really involved in the straights.

Only four Grand Prix without engine problems

It is remarkable that throughout the year there was always a team with engine problems. This was, as the table above suggests, mostly Ferraris. Four major awards passed without technical failures, the first of which was Imola. After ten races, in Belgium, all the cars were again intact in terms of the engine.

In the last two Grand Prix races, both teams have shown their best side, because no one in Japan and the United States has pulled out. It probably also has to do with the fact that a lot of new engines are being put in place around these races, and that subsequent grid penalties are taken for granted. This obviously benefits reliability.

The conclusion is that Ferrari built a powerful engine that actually had problems throughout the year. In the Alps, those treatments were spotty, but the effect always looked great when something went wrong. Red Bull Powertrains and Mercedes have done well in 2022. Mercedes’ numbers in particular are impressive, especially when you realize that there are no fewer than eight cars as powerful as Mercedes. You can’t ignore Red Bull either, especially because in terms of strength they really belong to the top of the sport at this age.