The countdown says ‘minus two’. Just two events until the end of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, a season that Ferrari has lived (and is experiencing) with an eye on the present and an eye on a future which is now just around the corner.
For the Scuderia the weekend in Qatar was a stop that came in a period of progress, which is confirmed by the numbers: if we exclude the ‘non-raced’ Grand Prix of Spa-Francorchamps, this was Ferrari’s weekend was the lowest number of points (10 points) ever since the nightmare weekend experienced in early summer at Paul Ricard. And just as happened on the French track, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had to deal with tire wear.
The lesson learned in the French Grand Prix, when Ferrari finished outside the top 10 with both cars, was useful.
It was not an easy Sunday for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, forced to drive based more on the feedback coming from the pits than fighting their rivals on track, but in the end this strategy was somewhat positive.
The seventh place of Carlos, who finished just ahead of Charles, is a precious result (10 points) especially if combined with the only two points scored by McLaren, direct opponent in the race for the only goal that remains in this finale part of the 2021 Formula 1 season, or the now well-known third position in the championship standings.
The strategists of Ferrari have planned the 57 laps of Losail aware of the limits of the car. To avoid repeating the negative outcome of the French Grand Prix, the only way was a one-stop race, and to do that it was necessary for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to be able to cover almost half the race with the set of medium tires used at the start.
At that point the times dropped considerably, and both ‘reds’ (with Charles Leclerc who managed to recover until behind his teammate) were able to show a pace similar to the one of their direct opponents.
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The Prancing Horse’s strategy also made it possible to indirectly recover two positions thanks to the tire problems that affected the race of Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris, both forced to make an additional stop in the pits due to a puncture of the left front tire.
A seventh and an eighth place is certainly not an exciting tally, but today it makes little sense to point the finger at the 80 seconds that separated the Ferrari tandem from Hamilton at the end. The SF21H is better suited to some tracks, which led it to third place in the overall standings, and less on others, such as Losail, and has been a well-known reality since last spring.
The Maranello team returned back home after an exhausting triple-header, with a 47 to 4 against McLaren, and this is a better result than expected.
For the Ferrari garage technicians, the Qatar weekend also entailed an additional effort, linked to having to assemble Charles Leclerc’s chassis, an operation that became indispensable due to a crack that emerged on the Monegasque’s chassis after qualifying. All within the time limits imposed by the curfew, which is less than five hours.
The garage won its race against time, and also during the race another important contribution came with a double pit stop performed flawlessly.
The team is ready, the drivers too, and the team as a whole seems to have grown well during a 2021 undoubtedly better than the previous season but still far from the objectives that Ferrari should have. For the leap in quality expected in 2022, everything seems ready, only the single-seater that we will see next February is missing, a car that for many different reasons will be one of the most anticipated in the history of the Scuderia.
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