The Ferrari F1-75 cars car seen during the 2022 Emilia Romagna GP weekend at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola were pretty strong at least with the balance for wet tires (that do not require high temperatures for optimal use), which is good news compared to past years. On intermediates things went slightly less better for the Maranello team, forcing the technicians to keep a slightly softer balance than what would actually have been needed in order to make the tyres work.
The F1-75 had to face a (narrow) window of ideal temperature use that was certainly more hostile than in previous races this season, as explained by Giuliano Duchessa e Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno; it cannot be a coincidence that it happened in the only weekend with the ‘short’ Friday and after going out on the track in qualifying without testing the setup changes decided after FP1. In addition, Ferrari decided to use Charles Leclerc’s engine in ‘safe mode’, which cost him almost 1 tenth per lap, unofficially “to preserve it”, even if there are inications that suggest that the call was made after the problems identified on the power unit Carlos Sainz at the end of the Australian Grand Prix.
It would have been very interesting to also be able to analyze the race of Carlos Sainz, as the Spanish driver was using the more powerful PU2, but data collection was not possible due to the first lap incident with Daniel Ricciardo, which means that Ferrari was not able to gather data to compare with PU1 back in Maranello.
The F1-75 setup was corrected – with what is allowed under parc fermé rules – but it couldn’t be changed too much. To make the front wheels work better, with an even less softer setup, would Ferrari maybe have used a configuration with more downforce? Not really, because the power difference on the straights would have been even bigger in favour of Red Bull, while also the aerodynamic bouncing (porpoising) would have been a bigger issue. The porpoising shown on the Imola straight, which is not even that long, was not so harmful but certainly important compared to the mechanical choice made. The compromise was to have speed on the straights and in the corners with a very soft setup for the car. On the other hand, the F1-75 was less reactive in Tamburello and Villeneuve.
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“The time was short to test other setups, ultimately it was not the downforce that limited us as much as the mechanical setup, if it had rained more it would have been better for us” a qualified source told formu1a.uno. Charles Leclerc was quite impressive at the high variant compared to the Red Bull cars and recovered between 1 and 2 tenths of a second in each lap. The error which the Monegasque driver made in the final stages of the Emilia Romagna GP occurred due to an excess of confidence. Charles had in fact understood it was was the only way to get very close to Sergo Perez and attempt an overtaking move for second place.
