Formula 1 News: Ferrari used special engines at Monza

(GMM) Dr Helmut Marko has backed Fernando Alonso’s suspicion that Ferrari brought special engines to Monza to try and beat Max Verstappen.

“It is the Ferrari circuit,” Spaniard Alonso, who raced for the Maranello based team for five years until 2014, said after Ferrari’s impressive outing at the Italian GP.

#14 Fernando Alonso, (ESP) Aramco Aston Martin Mercedes during the Italian GP, Monza 31 August-3 September 2023 Formula 1 World championship 2023.

“For years they have put in a new engine or done special things like that for that race, but the world championship is 22 races,” the Aston Martin driver added.

Red Bull team advisor Marko echoes Alonso’s sentiments.

“We knew that Ferrari would put everything possible into Monza,” he told Servus TV. “They went to the maximum and squeezed out the last horsepower.

“But we also knew that the engine would suffer later for that. Unlike them, we have a universal car. So we knew it would be tight and didn’t lose our nerve.

“But we were still surprised that we didn’t keep up with Ferrari at first,” Marko, 80, continued. “Max (Verstappen) had to drive differently and change his strategy and just be patient.

“The Max of four or five years ago would not have had that patience.”