Retired Brazilian automobile racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500 twice each, Emerson Fittipaldi, feels that the pressure of racing in front of the Tifosi led to Scuderia Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz taking risks and becoming vulnerable, as the Maranello team had high expectations ahead of the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but finished the weekend in a disappointing manner.
Max Verstappen took pole position on Friday, won the Sprint Race the following day despite the fact that Charles Leclerc had managed to overtake him at the start and was untouchable on Sunday afternoon in the main event at Imola. The sea of Red hoped for a memorable weekend for Ferrari, but it was not meant to be this time.
Adrian Newey’s RB13 is proving to be a very strong car, which prompted former two-time Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi to admit in a recent interview for VegasInsider at the end of the Imola race, that the Red Bull cars are now at least equally matched with the Ferrari F1-75 cars. Charles Leclerc admitted to making a mistake while he was trying to catch and overtake Sergio Perez for second place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as the Monegasque driver hit the wall and lost valuable points in his fight with Max Verstappen, who scored all the maximum points that were available this weekend, 34. The gap now shrunk to 27 points.
Emerson Fittipaldi analyzed the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: “My forecast was going to be Ferrari to win but when I look at the sprint race and I was looking at the details, it seems to me that the Red Bull has, in my opinion, mechanical and aerodynamic improvement. They seem to be a little better than Ferrari. In mechanical, there’s been an improvement. Downforce, because when the tires start wearing, you remember Max was very fast, that means he stays with the tires on a much better performance than the Ferraris. But the Ferrari to me, looking on TV, was proposing., moving up and down a lot. The Ferraris still don’t have the same downforce and mechanical grip as a Red Bull car. In my opinion, Red Bull is superior now. And that superiority of grip will give much better and more consistent tires. They wear less tires than the Ferrari. And that will be very important during the year. I was very impressed by their braking, turning the car into the corner – the Red Bull was superior to the Ferrari, for sure. Ferrari was porpoising a lot. Moving up and down, on wet tires and dry tires – to my surprise. A little too much” reckoned the 75-year-old Brazilian.
When asked about Scuderia Ferrari’s weekend in Imola, Emerson Fittipaldi added: “They are racing at home. If you think, Modena is half an hour from there. That’s their home track. Italy, tremendous pressure – on the team, on the mechanics, the engineers, the team managers, the drivers. I can imagine that Ferrari was under what I call tremendous pressure for racing. Incredible. Everybody expected them to win – another extra pressure. Not just being there on their home but everybody expecting them to win created that extra pressure. I think Carlos (Sainz) tried too hard and (Charles) Leclerc tried too hard. I think it was a mistake (Leclerc spinning) that anybody can do but being in Imola, being in Italy, being in the Ferrari team everybody, you know, makes a big thing about. If it was another track, same situation, another country, it was not going to be as big, the reaction of the media, the press, the team and the fans,” Emerson Fittipaldi added.
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In the end, Red Bull had all the reasons to celebrate in Italy after their one-two finish, which forced Charles Leclerc to also lose the podium finish. Emerson Fittipaldi continued: “Max and Checo Perez did a great job. They won the race on track. Well done. But my opinion is still the same. Ferrari has a better chance of winning the Championship than Red Bull and we’ll see what happens in the next few races.”
As for the incident between Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, which meant the end of the race for Carlos, Emerson Fittipaldi explained: “It’s a shame what happened to Daniel Ricciardo at the start with Carlos Sainz. I think it was a racing incident. Possibly Carlos was a little bit more optimistic than Ricciardo, the way he was going outside, it happened.” – the double Formula 1 World Champion concluded.
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