Ferrari has confirmed that it will introduce its first power unit upgrade at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, while Charles Leclerc will sit out first practice.
The Scuderia is set to use its first Additional Development Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) token to upgrade its internal combustion engine at the Red Bull Ring.
Ferrari's engine is believed to be down on power compared to those of Mercedes and Red Bull, although the Maranello-based outfit has also downplayed the impact the upgrade will have.
Instead, Ferrari views the engine upgrade as a first step towards improving its overall performance, and it is the result of hard work back at the factory.
"The entire team at the factory is now working relentlessly to make the most of the additional opportunities provided by the ADUO mechanism, in full alignment with our intended development roadmap," said Ferrari's power unit technical director, Enrico Gualtieri.
"The update we are bringing to Spielberg is a relatively minor one and it’s the result of the work completed in recent weeks to transfer improvements from our development programme to the track.
"It epitomises key principles of our sport: continuous improvement, reacting quickly, and deploying gains at the earliest opportunity."
In addition to introducing an engine upgrade, Leclerc will be replaced by Ferrari academy driver Dino Beganovic, who replaced Lewis Hamilton during first practice in Barcelona.
It will see the Scuderia complete half of the mandatory rule to use a rookie driver in four first practice sessions across a season.
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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