Charles Leclerc says the possible ban on “qualifying modes” can “only be positive” for Ferrari, but he is unsure of any benefits.
The FIA have reportedly sent a letter to teams saying these “short-term” power boosts are set to be outlawed, but this could come into effect from 2021 or as early as the Belgian Grand Prix from August 28-30.
Mercedes would stand to be one of those most affected if they lose their “party mode”, and Hamilton has accused Formula 1 bosses of deliberately trying to slow Mercedes down.
So with that in mind, perhaps it isn’t a surprise to hear that Ferrari are well behind the proposal.
“To be honest I don’t think it will affect us so much, so I think it can only be positive for us,” said Leclerc in a press conference before the Spanish Grand Prix.
“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.”
Leclerc’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel believes the ruling would definitely have a bigger impact on the other teams compared to Ferrari.
“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.
“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.”
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Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen is waiting to see what decision is made, but said the ability for teams ahead to call upon these higher engine modes is clear.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
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