With flip-flops and tank top, the red wave advances under the blazing sun even on the day when the engines are off. We had not seen so much enthusiasm in Spain since Fernando Alonso’s championship duels with Sebastian Vettel when the Spanish driver was racing for Ferrari – 330,000 people are expected over the weekend, with an impressive sold-out at the Circuit de Catalunya. For Carlos Sainz, who has picked up Fernando’s Spanish heritage, this weekend will be very emotional but also very important.
But for Ferrari the most important thing will be to get back at the top and to react after Max Verstappen’s two victories in a row (three considering also the sprint race), in Miami and Imola. Barcelona, a crossroads of dreams. Of exams and confirmations. It is here that at the end of February, after the first laps in the pre-season tests, Mattia Binotto realized he had a winning car. And it is always from here that the team principal must come out on Sunday with the guarantee of having a car still capable of fighting for the title until the end. Thanks to the developments on which they have been working in Maranello for months, they took advantage of every opportunity, including a day dedicated to promotional shots at Monza: car floor, diffuser, wings, lightening interventions.
Because it is no longer enough to have a good start, Charles’ lead in the standings over Max has narrowed, the Dutchman is down to -19 after his last triumphs. The strength of Red Bull is in evolution. In a strict diet that allowed Max Verstappen to manage the tires better than his rivals. It is estimated that since the beginning of the season the blue car has lost about 7 kilograms. And in Spain this process will continue with other updates, there is talk of a further significant reduction towards the minimum allowed by the regulation (798 kg, driver included). Then another big upgrade should arrive after the summer and also be used as a base for the 2023 car. Ferrari, having designed a strong car, decided to go with the basic version of the F1-75 since the start of the season and does not have much to file: but it expects an important leap in performance from the new package to close that gap of 2 tenths quantified by Mattia Binotto after the race in the US, and get back to the front.
The Spanish track, with its third slow sector – a kind of miniature Monte Carlo, where the next round of the 2022 Formula 1 season will take place, should enhance the characteristics of the F1-75 car, as already happened in February. One of the most anticipated elements is the new floor, designed to further limit the phenomenon of porpoising – the aerodynamic bouncing on the straight, an undesirable consequence of ground-effect F1 -, it is essential for lowering the set-up and gaining top speed, which has been the weak point of the F1-75 compared to Red Bull.
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Carlos Sainz is cautiously optimistic, like everyone in the red box: “They have been constantly introducing developments, we start now. I trust how we are working, the ideas are good and maybe they will help me to understand this car better.” Carlos sees himself as a child in this paddock, at the age of ten he told his father that one day he would race in Formula 1. And he said it after seeing Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso challenge each other, two giants. He is looking for his first career success and to take it at home would be the best possible scenario: “I was dreaming then and that dream became reality. It is my story that speaks, winning in front of my fans would be the best thing. But it’s not an idea that haunts me.”
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