Sauber Rejects Claims It Tested Ferrari's New F1 Engine in Winter
Sauber has denied reports that it secretly ran Ferrari’s upgraded 2015 power unit during pre-season testing in Barcelona, insisting it used only a standard engine.
Sauber has dismissed suggestions that it ran Ferrari’s new 2015 power unit during the winter test sessions in Barcelona. The Swiss Formula One team responded after German newspaper Bild reported that Ferrari’s next-specification engine, said to provide a 20 to 30 horsepower increase, had already been trialled in a Sauber chassis ahead of its expected race debut.
Ferrari was widely expected to introduce a revised engine at the Canadian Grand Prix in June 2015, aiming for a mid-season performance boost. Bild, however, alleged that the upgraded unit had already appeared at Barcelona’s pre-season tests, hidden in a Sauber to avoid detection by rival teams. The report claimed the new engine was run without competitors noticing, giving Ferrari and its customer team a head start on development.
Sauber's response to engine claims
Sauber moved quickly to reject the story. The team stated it had only used one engine throughout the winter, and that it was not aware of any special version being supplied by Ferrari. Team representatives insisted that, as a customer, they would have noticed any major changes in performance or specification. “We only had one engine in use, and we don’t think this was a special version. We would have certainly noticed the difference,” a Sauber spokesperson said, as reported by several outlets.
Technical regulations in 2015 allowed teams to use four engines per driver during the season, but once an engine had been used in a race weekend, it could not be retroactively upgraded. This made a winter test debut for a new specification unlikely, as Sebastian Vettel had only started using his second engine in Bahrain, just before the Canadian round.
Where the Ferrari upgrade stood for 2015
German journalist Ralf Bach, writing for f1-insider.com, also questioned the logic of an early debut, pointing out that Ferrari would not want to use up its engine allocation before Canada. Most sources agreed that the new power unit was scheduled for introduction at the Canadian Grand Prix, not before. Sauber’s public denial and the technical constraints both pointed away from the Bild report’s claim of a secret Barcelona test.
- Ferrari’s 2015 upgraded engine was expected to deliver a 20-30hp increase.
- The official debut was planned for the Canadian Grand Prix in June.
- Sauber maintained it ran only standard-specification Ferrari engines in winter testing.
