Here are the key details about the 2022-Ferrari engine

In his column for The Race, Mark Hughes talks about Ferrari's plans for their 2022 engine. According to him, the Italian team's power unit will change in several areas.

After the 2019 season, Ferrari received a lot of criticism about their powerful engine, which was said to be illegal. After an investigation by the FIA, the technical guidelines were changed in 2020. It became a difficult season for Ferrari.

"Since that time the Scuderia has been conducting two parallel development programmes for the ’22 engine, which represents the final chance to make significant changes. The first of these is a direct development of the current unit which is understood to have been showing better performance on the dyno until very recently when a breakthrough with the more innovative solution swung the balance of the decision," Hughes writes on the site.

Combustion technology from Ferrari

He continues: "The innovations are understood to include the intercooler solution and significant gains are believed to have been found in the energy recovery’s electrical system but the real innovation may be in the combustion technology." Ferrari is also said to be working on combustion technology. "Combining super-fast ignition with ways of making the intake mixture more turbulent – and therefore explosive – and getting the flame to quickly spread to the edges of the combustion chamber are the absolutely keys to improving combustion."

According to Hughes, the architecture will remain 'conventional' in terms of the turbocharger's layout. The intercooler and other changes would allow for a considerably more compact package compared to the current power unit.