Rather than losing out to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes again, or the nightmare of Brazil where its two drivers finally clashed, it is the continued questioning of the legality of its engine that has Ferrari still bristling with indignation.

Though the Italian team and the FIA insist that the engine was legal, fans and much of the media point to the obvious drop-off in performance once the technical directives started flowing as 'proof' that something was amiss.

However, speaking at his team's media lunch, team boss Mattia Binotto insists that the legality of the engine was proven beyond all doubt.

"If I look at the whole season, we have been one of the most checked teams, both before and after the TD had been worked up," said the Italian.

"When you have got a performance advantage, and certainly we had it for the whole season because we've had a power advantage compared to our competitors since the first race, being checked is normal and it is somehow good because through the checks you are proving your legality after the TD has been issued.

"The number of checks on our cars have multiplied," he continued, "the results have been shown to the FIA and the details have been discussed. So whatever could have been done through collaboration with the FIA has been done.

"We have never changed our way of operating the engine for the last part of the season," he insists, "showing that our power unit is fully legal. Had that not been the case, if there would have been any non-legality, it would have come out at the very first check."

Looking back to the first season of the hybrid formula, Binotto points out that such was Mercedes domination similar questions were raised.

"In the first year of hybrid formula we were down on horsepower. Back then it was simply a matter of clarifications, a matter of addressing even further the regulations, more TDs and more discussions. But that's exactly what can happen in F1 when you have a competitive advantage.

"In 2014, we had a big gap to Mercedes, which I remember was above 80 horsepower at the time and we recognised it. We put a lot of effort and investment into our power unit to try to address it and to improve.

"Today we have a smaller advantage compared to what they had at the time, simply because we worked very hard as a team. I think I am somehow very happy for what we achieved."

Meanwhile, Ferrari CEO, Louis Camilleri admitted his frustration at the ongoing speculation.

"Ferrari is a public company, it's known worldwide," he said, "integrity and compliance is key.

"I think people need to factor that in when they try to look at these allegations which have grown as the months evolved, stronger and stronger."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Wokingchap, 22/12/2019 13:57

""...one of the most checked teams", of course they are, theya are known cheaters."

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2. Posted by Stitch431, 19/12/2019 15:08

"The fact that they lost their advantage after the implementation of the technical directives, proves otherwise. Data of the races after that have proved this. + If it were legal, the technical directives would not have been implemented."

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3. Posted by Pavlo, 17/12/2019 14:35

"@Vinodh Moodley - for me, doing something "not in the spirit of the rules" is the "spirit of F1", the feature that really makes us love the sport - it's not only the drivers, but also engineering genius.
Anyway we are still pretty far from 6-wheeled cars :)
Besides, in 2014 everyone accepted that Mercedes had huge advantage, and to same degree still has today. Why can't people just accept that this year Ferrari's engine is just slightly better?"

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4. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 17/12/2019 12:21

"The engine is legal its the amount of fuel going through it that was not."

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5. Posted by Vinodh Moodley, 17/12/2019 11:23

"I think that Ferrari didn't cheat but may have done something that wasn't in the "spirit of the rules" like the F-duct, double diffuser, FRIC, dual-brake pedals, fully auto gearboxes etc. The TDs just closed the loophole thereby negating their advantage.

I'm quite sure the other teams would have done the same if they could have figured it out..."

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6. Posted by klmn, 16/12/2019 18:52

" "integrity as a public company ? like dieselgate as an example ? LOL"

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Binotto: We proved legality of our engine

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