Ferrari boss reveals 'risk' behind ADUO power unit upgrade

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has revealed the "very risky" way that the team approach its power unit upgrade, with teams limited by the ADUO measurements.

Red Bull was judged to have the best-performing internal combustion engine [ICE] in the FIA's latest measurements, meaning that it was used as the baseline, with rival teams granted upgrade tokens depending on how far behind they were.

Despite the FIA judgement having only been made recently, Vasseur revealed that Ferrari has been developing its engine for some time, despite the risk this took with cost cap restrictions had the Scuderia been labelled the benchmark. 

"The lead time on the engine is huge, and you have months of delay on some components," he explained. 

"It means that uh it was very risky for us to launch the ADUO, or at least step two of the engine, very early for cost cap reasons. It means that we are not expecting at all a big step uh this weekend."

Ferrari launched its first upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix, quietly running the new parts on Friday amid an expectation that this would debut on Saturday, with an older practice engine used to absorb the early mileage.

After the high of Lewis Hamilton's first Ferrari victory in Barcelona, the Scuderia completed Friday practice in a familiar bracket, with the seven-time champion in fifth place, almost six-tenths back on Kimi Antonelli, and Charles Leclerc in eighth. 

Asked if Ferrari was just being conservative or had problems across the two sessions, Vasseur said: "Today, we struggled a little bit with the conditions, I think [it was] a bit like Barcelona, with the altitude, with the temperature, with track temperature, air temperature. 

"It means that it's the same for everybody, but we struggled a lot, and we have to work on ourselves, to work on the on the setup, on the car, on the driving, on everything to do a better job tomorrow."

While Ferrari had struggled on Friday in Spain, the team had been able to transform the car across a race distance, especially on Hamilton's side, with tyre degradation far superior to rival teams. 

Despite tyre management expected to again be a theme in the sweltering conditions, Vasseur conceded: "The deg in Barcelona was much higher, and it was the main driver for the performance, at least in the race. But we were also able to fight for the pole position in quali. 

"It means that at least in terms of pure potential, we are there. Now, we are so far away, but it's true that in Barcelona we are not so shiny, also on Friday."