Scuderia Ferrari have taken a generally cautious approach in the comments made ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season, but according to the Italian and Spanish media, there are reasons to be optimistic for the Maranello team’s new campaign, especially on regarding the 2022 power unit.
Many predictions have been made in the last few weeks about the Italian side’s chances in 2022, as Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner half-jokingly suggested they could “smash us out of the park” in the first round of the season, which takes place at the Bahrain International circuit, given the fact that Ferrari was able to focus on this year’s project from the early stages of 2021.
Sky Sports pundits Karun Chandhok and Ted Kravitz have reported encouraging signals on the grapevine. The latter has heard “a lot of positive noises out of Ferrari” and the former was told “they feel they made big gains on the power-unit side”.
Karun Chandhok’s indications have also been backed up by Spanish media outlet MARCA, who are referring to “not only relative optimism, but a lot of optimism in terms of the work that has been done for more than a year” on the engine side of the operation.
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At the same time, Ferrari’s sporting director Laurent Mekies admitted that the team has made gains as compared to Mercedes and Red Bull’s performance from last season, while also pointing out that these teams will most likely also find improvements ahead of the 2022 championship.
MARCA, who are citing an Italy-based source, explain: “The engine data looks very good, enough to be on a par with Honda and Mercedes in 2021. The aero and cornering data are also good, but here is the big question – what are they doing or finding in other teams? Despite this, the feeling is they (Ferrari) have worked very well, with full dedication and a lot of anticipation.” – they worte, as reported by planetf1.com
The Wolf Zimmermann-designed engine has been nicknamed ‘Superfast’ at Maranello but that is a description unlikely to be heard from the lips of Mekies or team principal Mattia Binotto, who is setting Ferrari the target of challenging Mercedes and Red Bull without being confident of beating them over the entire season.
“Obviously, we assume that if Mercedes and Red Bull have managed to develop the cars we have seen in recent years, it means they have tools, methodologies, calculations, simulations and other certainties that have been fine-tuned over time,” MARCA said, quoting Mattia Binotto – “I think it’s presumptuous to say today we will beat Mercedes and Red Bull. I think the right approach is to aim to compete against them.”
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