With his victory in the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc reduced the gap to 38 points against Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings ahead of the French Grand Prix, also overtaking Sergio Perez, who was forced to retire at the Red Bull Ring, just like the other Ferrari car of Carlos Sainz: due to his power unit issue in Spielberg, the Spanish driver is now 75 points behind Max Verstappen. In the Constructors standings, which remains Scuderia Ferrari’s first target for the 2022 Formula 1 championship, the Maranello team is now 56 points behind Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc’s victory is the result of the technical superiority shown by the F1-75 package, but also because of a perfect combination of factors, such as car performance, the driver, the pit wall with the excellent pit stops and also the strategy calls made by the team. It is also thanks to this superiority, and to a certainly exceptional driving from the Monegasque above all in terms of adaptation, that Ferrari managed to maintain the first position against Max Verstappen, a victory that was in doubt due to the annoying problem with the accelerator pedal that got stuck.
Something “mechanical rather than electronic” according to Ferrari. With two main problems. The first, purely driving and particularly annoying especially in slow corners such as Turn 3 or 4, linked to a car that remained accelerated and therefore pushed both when entering the corner and when cornering. The second, no less important, is that as the car always remained accelerated, it consumed more fuel than expected. For this Charles Leclerc also had to do Lift & Coast at the end of the straights to save some fuel, which made him waste more time, according to formu1a.uno.
This the credit also goes to the Ferrari strategists. Mattia Binotto himself then wanted to point out the different management of the Safety Car (in Austria it was a Virtual Safety Car) compared to the previous race. “The situation was completely different. We knew Max [Verstappen] would stop because he missed a pit stop, so by stopping Charles we wouldn’t have lost track position. ” However, a non-race resulted between Ferrari and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, the only RB18 on track after Serio Perez retired due to the serious damage suffered in the first lap crash with George Russell. Only a reliability problem or something linked to external factors could have taken a one-two finish for Ferrari, which unfortunately then happened with the retirement of Carlos Sainz and the throttle problem on Charles Leclerc’s F1-75.
But was it a Ferrari at the level of what we saw last April in Australia? We mustn’t go back so many weeks according to Mattia Binotto. “This is a car that has always proven to be competitive, not only today but also at Silverstone, and going backwards, both in Monaco and in Spain. Red Bull has broght updates in England, we have brought a little something and the performances have not changed much”.
Formula 1 therefore arrived in Austria, on a track where Ferrari could attack and not just defend. The Red Bull Ring is a track limited to the rear (like Bahrain, Barcelona and Monaco), circuits where Ferrari was able to extract maximum performance from its car more easily and quickly. On ‘front limited’ tracks the situation is the opposite, with Red Bull faster and often better on the tires. There were only concerns related to the power unit and its use at high altitude, especially when compared to the Japanese engine (Honda) used by the Anglo-Austrian team. Qualifying removed all doubts from the men in Maranello. Even in Austria they could fight for victory, actually victories considering the weekend with the Sprint Race.
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Ferrari were aware that they had more in terms of race pace but not so much
The first race, the 100 km race on Saturday afternoon, was positive and above all indicative for the 300 km on Sunday despite the fact that Scuderia Ferrari achieved less than it could have in the Sprint race, due to a misunderstanding between the two drivers and the team, as Mattia Binotto explained. “In the very first phase of the Sprint, Charles was saving his tires, allowing Verstappen to create a gap and then try to recover at the end of the race.” – stated the Italian side’s boss – “Carlos, on the other hand, believed that it was better to push in order not to let Max escape. It is a misunderstanding between the two of them and between us on what to do and for this Charles was surprised by Carlos’ attack. There was no intentionality or a quarrel between the two, you just need to clarify ahead of the race to avoid these misunderstandings ” – he explained.
However, the second part of the mini race gave Ferrari a certainty that Carlos Sainz’s idea was the right one. It was understood that Verstappen had to be attacked from the very first lap. The small but at the same time important loss of performance on the mediums of Max’s RB18 was therefore to be exploited properly on Sunday. “In the Sprint there was a good pace, even if in the end it was difficult to understand how much Max was pushing, but he gave us a hint of potential and that’s why I was positive today.”
Ferrari has set this weekend, similar to what we saw at Silverstone, on trying to optimize the car for the softest compound to use in the race. The C4 (Medium) in Austria. Even at the expense of a little performance on the Soft, just like in the UK, but with the certainty of being able to run 400 km, the 300 of the Main Race plus the 100 of the Sprint Race, with a car that could have more pace. In short, the goal was to no longer have a super-performing F1-75 in qualifying and with less than perfect tire management, but a better balance. “I don’t think there was much difference in terms of pure pace between the two cars. We had better tire management and we saw yesterday in the Sprint which was even more evident today putting Max under pressure, forcing him to push and wear the tires.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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